5G in India – Are we ready?

India’s 5G journey has witnessed it all – from conspiracy theories that COVID-19 is a cover-up for the deployment of 5G to a bizarre instance of High Court proceedings being interrupted by an enthusiastic Bollywood fan. While more than 30% of the world’s nations have already implemented 5G commercially (South Korea being the first nation to do so), India is still grappling with issues at every level — be it in relation to market readiness, financial viability, or regulatory structure. Serious concerns are also being raised on the adverse impact that 5Gcovi technology has on health and the environment. India is currently at a critical stage where telcos are conducting trials for 5G implementation. Whereas this might suggest that deployment of the technology is round the corner, the fundamental question is whether India is 5G ready or not.

Where Is India vis-a-vis 5G?

5G trials in India are already underway, using foreign and indigenous technologies. Though this phase was expected to conclude by November 2021, telcos have been granted additional time till May 2022, particularly to conduct trials in rural India. The expectation is that various use cases across industries and sectors will be tested in local conditions to assess feasibility. Also, an increased focus on rural connectivity appears to be a given as the majority customer base would probably be in the rural areas. Further, the outreach of network coverage indicates a huge potential.

Please click here to read the full article by Tony Verghese and Rakesh Warrier, published in Telecom Talk.