Looking beyond mobile phones: How 5G will revolutionise the industry landscape

India might follow global countries closely in adopting the 5G technology, unlike in the past where the country used to be a laggard.

5G, expected to be launched in India by 2022, will change the landscape of the industry going forward, as it is expected to benefit business-to-business segment more than the previous technologies that mainly served business-to-consumer interest. Globally, South Korea, North America, Japan and China are expected to start 5G operations in the next one to two years.

A smartphone will no longer be a pivotal part of the telecom industry, as other connected devices will take prominence once the 5G comes into full force.

"Telecom will be more of B2B2C now. This means with 5G, other than getting into the industrial and enterprise communications, the users will get it through some use case provider. The success of the operator shall be determined by the number of use cases it can offer to an end user over 5G. Along with it, there will be a lot of devices and not just the smartphone. Users will experience 5G through the value it would provide by connecting various devices like consumer electronics, security and surveillance, energy systems etc," Faisal Kawoosa, an analyst with CyberMedia Research, said.

Experts say 5G would only be a premium service and not cater to the mass market. The new technology will include artificial intelligence, virtual reality, machine to machine communications, internet of things and other things.

Last week, a committee set up by the department of telecommunications came out with the roadmap for 5G. The 5G spectrum allocation policy is expected to come out by the end of this year. The economic impact of 5G services is expected to be over $1 trillion, as per the report. 5G would be critical for various segments in the society, including agriculture, education, public safety and disaster management, among others.

However, Kawoosa says, "India won't be at par with global countries realistically. What groundwork have we done? Ours is more in abstraction compared to some of the frontrunner nations like Korea, where things are relatively tangible."

With over 300 million Indian middle class living in urban areas, a variety of 5G business models for new services are likely to be successful. However, the economically weaker sections of the population, living in smaller towns and villages, will need special help to benefit from 5G technologies.

The government is moving rapidly on the 5G forefront. Even telecom regulator Trai came out with its recommendations on spectrum auction and pricing, including for 5G. However, many telecom players have asked the government not to go for a spectrum auction in the current fiscal given their financial constraints.

"The government is very keen on early adoption of 5G technology but it appears very unlikely that telcos, with their present financial difficulties, will opt for a spectrum auction that the government plans to roll out in the near future, especially since a high-level 5G Forum has said cost of spectrum (in India), relative to per capita GDP, is much higher than most countries," Care Ratings said on Monday

However, a senior ministry official from the telecom ministry said, "The auction process has to begin, irrespective of whether there are enough operators to buy spectrum or not. The government cannot wait for them to be in good shape and then go for auctions," a senior ministry official said. The official said at least one telecom player has expressed interest in acquiring 5G spectrum.

Rajan Mathews, director general, COAI, says 5G will play an important role in government projects like smart cities, smart healthcare and connected cars. "With the launch of 5G services, effectively every possible device will get connected to the network. Besides, to manage the key areas of smart cities -- higher speed, huge capacity and minimal latency will be required and hence 5G will be a key of India's Smart City Mission."

As per estimates, 5G will increase the speed by over 10 times compared to 4G. With the onset of 5G, an Indian telecom player will become an integrated digital service provider with digital wallet offerings, deployment of 5G networks with voice shifting to LTE, app-based video calling and virtual reality-based applications. A recent report by Ericsson also said that by end of 2023, close to 50% of all mobile subscriptions in North America is forecast to be for 5G, followed by North East Asia at 34%, and Western Europe at 21%.

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• 300 million Indian middle class living in urban areas
   
• $1trillion The economic impact of 5G services expected