Sandeep Sudeep, vice president, telecom, NEC Corporation India,
Over the last few months, undoubtedly, telecommunications and ICT have emerged as the top requirements in a pandemic riddled world. The two verticals were primarily the core for seamless communication and almost always behind the scenes for the larger audience. However, with COVID-19 pushing us all into a hyper remote working mode, the need for bandwidth and connectivity took the stage front and centre in every household. Even 5G has become a catchphrase for uber connectivity, even before the technology was formally launched in the country.
A pandemic that redefined the very ways in which we transacted, communicated, and survived is now at the cusp of rewriting the norms of connectivity as well. In telecom terms, the world no longer can sustain on legacy architecture but needs to be reinvented in the language of open architecture and cloud native applications. This May 17th, we celebrated World Telecom Day, or now known to be as World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. This year, the theme was identified to be “Accelerating digital transformation in challenging times” by the International Telecommunication Union. Coincidentally or not, India is on the verge of a massive technological disruption with the advent of 5G trials, set to happen later in the year. But before we delve deeper into what 5G holds for us, it is prudent to take stock of what we are currently capable of and what would be the best way forward in order to reap the maximum benefits from a state-of-the-art technology like 5G for a massive country like India.
This pandemic has created a resounding image of what telecom can do to push India to a soaring digital-first nation. With little or no warning, the whole of India Inc went into remote mode of working with minimal experience in handling a catastrophe of this magnitude. Each and every operator and telecom vendors were faced with unprecedented demand in both B2B services and B2B2C verticals. In a period of heightened uncertainty and heavy reliance on technology and automation, India’s telecom ecosystem came through at extraordinary pace and helped enterprises and the end consumer alike to migrate to digital first, turning India into a hyper-connected economy, almost overnight. But was it really an overnight magic? No, this was the hard proof of the resilience this otherwise silent sector has shown throughout the decades and the patient transformation that happened while the world went on with its life, until it didn’t.
We can now see industry discourses and dynamic panels on interference of 5G and allied technologies in daily life and how relevant is the correct and timely implementation of the same to reap optimum benefits. Welcome change it is but again, the need for a steady paced development of native architecture is what the conversations are missing. No disruptive technology can be implemented overnight, nor can it be put on hold until we are fully ready. A dynamic and fluid ecosystem with utmost convergence of technology and capability is what will give India is the much-needed push to become a 5G nation, a massive leap to the technology of tomorrow.
Era of 5G is not far off and the ecosystem requires strong Industry momentum & support. The 5G era will require CSPs to innovate across the entire service ecosystem. As we look at it, we can identify four major challenges for communication service providers (CSPs).
- Accommodating increased traffic demand due to more connected devices and new usage patterns. By 2025, 5G smartphone users are expected to consume 100GB per month
- Delivering more value to end users by improving user experience. 71% of manufacturers are willing to pay more for 5G connectivity.
- Creating new business models and revenue streams. eMBB, FWA & XR are viewed as key new and improved 5G services.
- Efficiently replacing and upgrading legacy networks. CSPs will invest US$858bn in 5G networks by 2025.
The global mobile industry has started to utilise Open RAN technology to deploy the technology. Having a buoyant host will help in keeping the deployment seamless and operationally efficient. This methodology helps them to foster multi-vendor ecosystems, thereby ending market monopolies, encouraging newer innovations and applications, and global best practices to be made standard across markets.
Capitalising on this opportunity will largely depend on how service providers are going to face the challenge of cost effectively managing operations and monetizing new services, building and launching 5G-ready infrastructure including end to end stack. Industry must provide its services at anytime, anywhere and to anyone and that bold promise can only be provided by underlying technology stack complements the same strategy. 5G holds that promise as it can connect anything, anywhere and anytime. Open Virtual RAN is one concrete and innovative approach to realize that.
Competent vendors, capable of seamless integration of the solutions within the existing environment will also play a crucial role in calculating the effectiveness of the technology in the country. India Inc., with their trademark buoyancy, showcased the true relevance of competent digital infrastructure and network support. It is only fitting that vendors and manufactures as well reciprocate the true nature of adaptation and sustenance.
