The second day of the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2020 being jointly organised by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) commenced amidst much fanfare on December 9, 2020. The three-day mega-event, themed “Inclusive Innovation: Smart, Secure, Sustainable” was inaugurated by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
Day 2 kick-started with a Telco’s CEO Conclave on the topic – “Prioritising Technology to Generate Sustainable Value.” The day witnessed seven other plenary sessions, including, 5G Use Cases + IoT – Innovation for the Super Generation of Mobile Technology; AI on the Edge – The Next Wave of AI Innovation; Skilling for India – New Age Skills for Inclusive and Sustainable Careers; Smart Devices, Redefining Devices for the future – *in association with MediaTek – Bringing 5G to Everyone; Security and Data Privacy Ethics – Trust, Test and Assure – a Multi-pronged Approach; 5G Regulations: Light Touch Regulation *in association with USIBC – Finding the Right Balance; 5G Broadcasting – From Fallow to High-throughput: Opportunities for India to Leverage ATSC 3.0 Technology *in association with Sinclair.
The second day of the virtual event witnessed an overwhelming participation from global industry behemoths deliberating on subjects such as international best practices in the realm of digital transformation, burgeoning exponential technologies, dire need of viable regulatory frameworks, smart devices and a smarter world, cyber-security, environmentally sustainable, inclusive futuristic technology, etc.
The speakers during the day included Ajit Pai, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission and Dr. P.D. Vaghela (IAS), Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Ajay Prakash Sawhney (IAS), Secretary (Electronics and Information Technology), Government of India (MeitY) and Victor Fedeli , Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Government of Ontario, Professor Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur; Brendan Carr, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, Shashi Shekhar Vempati, CEO, Prasar Bharti, Monica Desai, Director Public Policy, Facebook; Rob Weisbord, President – Broadcast, Sinclair, Nunzio Mirtillo, Senior Vice President and Head of Market Area South East Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson; Bruce McClelland, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ribbon Communications and Marjet Andriesse, President and Chief Executive Officer, Red Hat.
Speaking during the conference, Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson South east Asia, Oceania and India, said “We are convinced that high-speed mobile connectivity like 5G will be instrumental in providing a stable platform for innovation and economic growth, especially when we factor in the big potential of digitalising industry verticals. Based on 5G Business potential study for India, the business opportunity of leveraging 5G to digitalise industries for Indian operators stands at $17 billion by 2030, with manufacturing, healthcare and energy and utilities expected to be the top 3 contributors.”
Further, P Balaji, Chief Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), said “Massive MIMO, cloud-based networking and network function virtualisation are some of the technology interventions that Vi has undertaken to ensure that Indian consumers are getting the best possible service at affordable prices. If the aspiration of customers is to add more and more to their digital life, as an industry, we have to use technology interventions. Each telecom player has invested a huge amount of money to drive the industry forward for the citizens’ benefit. The telecom industry has continued to support the digital journey of the country.”
Meanwhile, Mylaraiah J N, Director – Sales Enterprise, India and SAARC, CommScope, said “Data centers will play a central role in India’s digital transformation journey including unlocking the benefits of 5G. The adoption of cloud computing and new age technologies for high-resolution cloud gaming, industrial IoT process control and onsite augmented reality guidance for workers amongst others and the need to process the data from such applications close by will drive the demand for data centers. The benefits of 5G’s super high speed, low latency and machine-to-machine communications will drive deployment of billions of edge-based connected devices and create the need for flexible user-centric networks. To deal with the data crush, networks will rely heavily on virtualized architectures like network slicing, and other cloud-based technologies such as AI and machine-type learning. Moreover, new business models will emerge from data centers’ growing role in all commerce, empowering them to leverage the cloud architectures, embrace low-latency edge computing, achieve 400G bandwidth, and more.”
The day also witnessed some product launches. STL made two key announcements and launched its Wi-Fi6 solution and an initiative to build a global ecosystem for developing 5G multi-band macro radios. Speaking about these announcements, Dr. Badri Gomatam, Group CTO, STL, said “STL’s Wi-Fi 6 Access Point, launched by Sushil Rawat, VP RAN Platform, Rakuten Mobile, will provide high speed and low latency communications in high-density environments and shape the future of public connectivity. On the other hand, STL’s initiative to build a global ecosystem for 5G multi-band radio will ensure reliable and scalable deployment of Open RAN radio units and small cells, thereby enabling operators to confidently speed up large-scale deployments of 4G and 5G.”
Further, Mediatek announced that it will collaborate with popular smartphone brands to launch the 7nm MediaTek Dimensity 800U powered smartphones in India. As per the company, the Dimensity 800U would enable Mediatek to continue accelerating the rollout of 5G technology and deliver premium experiences on mid-tier 5G smartphones. The new premium smartphones will be launched in January 2021 and will be one of the first MediaTek powered 5G smartphones available in India.
IMC 2020 is being held virtually from December 8, 2020 to December 10, 2020 and aims to highlight the journey from smart devices to a smarter world, safe and secure technology and breakthroughs in the domain, easy and inclusive tech adoption and environmentally sustainable futuristic tech.
Considered as the largest digital technology event in India and also the biggest international tech conference in South Asia, IMC will continue its legacy of being the perfect congregation to display, discuss, and recognise the importance of global and Indian telecommunications, mobile and internet connectivity and digital services sector.
