In our everyday English language, the term smart would be listed out as an adjective or at rare times as a verb. Yet, over the past decade or so, the word seems to have gained a life of its own; it has become an idiom -- a term that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to it. The reason is apparent; we live in a world where everything is either 'smart' or becoming one. From the smartphones in our pockets to the smart homes in which we live, from the smart cars that have debuted on the roads to the smart cities coming up. Everything is becoming smart these days. And were we to break down this so-called smartness, it would merely mean digital and connected.

Share Market Live

NSE

In reality, the driving spirit behind the smartness is the inter-connectedness or what we call as the connected network. The hallmark of this interconnected world is that the devices and machines interact with each other seamlessly, almost without human intervention. With the availability and spread of high-speed internet, India sees a boom in new devices coming online. Take, for instance, the fact that India ranks second in terms of the number of telecom subscriptions, internet subscribers, and app downloads. Still, India holds the world's highest data usage per smartphone at an average of 9.8 GB per month. It is expected to double to 18 GB by 2024. In fact, the number of internet subscribers in the country is expected to double to 829 million by 2021.

The next big thing in connectivity will be the arrival of 5G or the fifth generation of cellular technology in India. Broadly speaking, due to its inherent design and network usage, 5G has numerous advantages over 4G; namely higher speeds, less latency, massive capacity for more connected devices, less interference and better efficiency. According to estimates, 5G networks will enable up to 100 gigabits per second, as much as 100 times faster than 4G, the current networks.

This upgrade has the potential to truly revolutionize India's digital transformation journey. To explore the various facets of this transformative journey, CNBC-TV18 and Intel dedicated a complete episode on the topic of Connectivity Revolution under the aegis of the tech-centric series "Future-Proof Your Business". The episode featured how telecom companies, especially Airtel, are driving the connectivity revolution.

Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Airtel India & South Asia, spoke at length on how 5G could impact India. "5G brings along with its higher throughput, lower latency, capabilities to do slice networks, and have mass concurrencies to support, smart cities, smart factories, smart homes. It will also trigger a lot of other innovation that will happen on the core; what we call as cloud, around areas like transport, as an ecosystem would create things that unlock many potentials. It will also unleash the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML,)" he said.

One of the primary reasons why technologies like 5G have been immensely successful is how companies collaborate to build use cases. For instance, Intel and Airtel are working together to leverage the connected network and cloud computing power to provide a variety of solutions to the enterprise space and even individuals.

Werner G Schaefer, VP, Sales, Marketing & Communications Group, Intel, highlighted how 5G would connect the world in real-time. "5G will connect the world in real-time is a sweeping change in its ability to advance data from the edge device to the cloud and back with a latency that is 100 times better than 4G. What we can see is the next generation in digital experience, autonomous vehicles, smart stadiums, smart cities, and smarter workforce," he said.

Delving on the topic a bit more deeply, Manish Gupta, Senior Director & GM, Data Center & Compute Business, Dell Technologies, India, spoke about how various sectors will employ 5G connectivity to be more productive and grow sales. "Banks will be able to hyper-personalize customer experience and create new business models. You can reduce the risks and detect fraud at an early stage. Let me go beyond 5G, and connected network, so many new technologies are at the anvil, there's quantum computing, drone technology, 3D printing, biotechnology, there's so many out there, and it is difficult to guess which of this will succeed and change the world of the future," he states.

In the end, the connectivity revolution is genuinely poised to change the Indian landscape. The best part of the technological shift is that it will make our lives better. For instance, technological innovations like telemedicine and digital education can truly change our society. That is the power of connected technology.