India’s wait for 5G may soon be over as the Department of Telecommunication confirmed that 13 cities would get 5G services this year.

This game-changing technology platform has myriad implications for industries, consumers, technology applications, like AR/VR and even automation and the Internet of Things. It is expected to unlock new economic opportunities and societal benefits and help India leap over the traditional barriers to development while furthering the Digital India vision.

To deep dive into the lessons that India can learn from the first wave of 5G deployment globally and anticipate the challenges and opportunities that will accompany its deployment in India, CNBC TV18 and Qualcomm gleaned insights from domain experts in a special show, “The 5G Opportunity”.

The event began with Jim Cathey, Senior Vice President & President, Qualcomm Global Business Operations, sharing his views on the theme. He recognized 5G as a force that was accelerating the digital transformation of virtually every sector and every industry and even society. “5G has proved to be incredibly pervasive,” he said. While pointing out that there are already a number of industries in India that are investing in technologies that ride on 5G, such as automotive, AR, VR, home broadband connectivity, etc, he added, “For India, we need both capacity and coverage and the question is whether the operatives have sufficient resources to deploy the roll out of an extensive 5G network.”

He suggested that as the cost of initial roll out and deployment would be substantial, the government should encourage sharing of infrastructure through policy frameworks. “Operators can actually work in a synergistic way to expedite 5G in its deployment and adoption,” he submitted. He concluded that if India seeks to create 5G infrastructure in India for the world, it must leverage Global Standards and Scales for Industry 4.0, for which 5G is the enabler and mmWave is the accelerant.

Next up, to discuss the way forward, the event featured a knowledgeable panel, comprising Dr Thiaw Seng, Head – Network Solutions, Strategic Network Evolution Market Area South East Asia, Oceania & India, Ericsson; Manish Vyas, President – Communications Media and Entertainment business and CEO of Network Services at Tech Mahindra; Vijayaraman Subramanian, VP & MD, Verizon Indi.

They discussed various use cases envisaged for the platform, starting with 5G home broadband, the gig economy, sports and gaming and going all the way to network slicing and providing differentiators in manufacturing, automotive, oil and gas, gaming athe5gopportunitynd other industries, specifically healthcare.

They concluded that the way we live work and play is changing and will continue to evolve very rapidly thanks to innovation in the 5G ecosystem, as telecom service providers, technology providers and several other stake holders coming together to integrate and realise the full potential of this platform.

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This is a partnered post.

First Published:Apr 13, 2022 4:48 PM IST