5G: Prospects & Challenges | Gist of Rajya Sabha TV / RSTV (now Sansad TV) - UPSC PDF Download

Introduction

• The government of India has envisaged making India a five trillion-dollar economy in the next few years. Towards reaching this milestone, one important aspect on which work is required is to transform India’s digital infrastructure. 
• While significant changes have been seen in this regard in recent years, what really is expected to bring about a digital revolution is the 5G technology – something that India has been waiting and preparing for long. 
• Prime Minister Modi has called for rapid 5G network rollouts in the country, saying the next-gen technology will not just transform lives, but boost India’s economic fortunes by a whopping 450 billion dollars in the next one and a half-decade. 
• And for this, he had called for stronger levels of cooperation and collaboration between govt and industry to hasten 5G rollouts. However, it seems the wait for a 5G network in India may become a little longer. Issues relating to auction pricing as well as tussle over private network allocation have come to the forefront.

5G

• It is the next generation cellular technology that will provide faster and more reliable communication with ultra-low latency.
• Latency is the amount of time data takes to travel between its source and destination.
• 5G is the fifth generation mobile network.
• A government panel report points out that with 5G, the peak network data speeds are expected to be in the range of 2-20 Gigabit per second (Gbps).
• This is in contrast to 4G link speeds in averaging 6-7 Megabit per second (Mbps) in India as compared to 25 Mbps in advanced countries.

5G Benefits

• It will revolutionize the mobile experience, consumers will be able to download data heavy content such as 8K movies and games with better graphics in just a few seconds. But once 5G becomes commercial, users will be required to change their current devices in favour of 5G-enabled ones.
• However, it is likely that the primary use of the technology will go beyond delivery of services on personal mobiles devices.
• A government panel on 5G says the technology will extend the use of wireless technologies for the first time across completely new sectors of the economy from industrial to commercial, educational, health care, agricultural, financial and social sectors.
• The report also stresses that even after the entry of 5G into the Indian networks, the earlier generation mobile technologies (2G, 3G and 4G) will continue to remain in use and that it may take 10 or more years to phase them out.

Various field Applications of 5G Network

• One of the primary applications of 5G will be implementation of sensor-embedded network that will allow real time relay of information across fields such as manufacturing, consumer durables and agriculture.
• 5G can also help make transport infrastructure more efficient by making it smart. 5G will enable vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, making driverless cars, among other things, a reality.
• Low latency is one of the most important features of 5G technology which is significant for mission critical applications. 5G networks are capable of latency less than a millisecond.
• 5G will be using new radio millimetre waves for transmission. It has much higher bandwidth compared to lower LTE bands and capable of huge data rate.
• 5G is the most efficient candidate for Internet of Things due to its flexibility, unused spectrum availability and low-cost solutions for deployment.
• IoT applications will collects huge amount of data from millions of devices and sensors. It requires an efficient network for data collection, processing, transmission, control and real-time analytics.
• Healthcare industry has to integrate all the operation with use of a powerful network.
• 5G will power healthcare industry with smart medical devices, Internet of medical things, smart analytics, and high definition medical imaging technologies.

Challenges present to adapt to 5G are

• Frequency allocation: Indian operators have far less spectrum in comparison to international operators. The high investment cost which makes telecom companies unsure about Return on Investment.
• We lag behind in technology in comparison.
• Network investment: In India, the telecom sector is facing capital augmentation issues which need to be resolved.
• Non-availability of funds for investment: Many of the Indian operators are also weighed down by debt.
• Regulatory restrictions: Faster rounds of new technology introduction when prior technology investments have not been recouped add further complexity.
• Technical Challenges: Designing IT architecture that can be deployed globally, while still allowing for localized technology to cater for different regions is a challenge.

Way forward for India

• Need to align Digital India with 5G technology.
• Strengthen our cyber infrastructure.
• Incentivize design and manufacture of 5G technologies, products and solutions in India.
• Allocate funds and incentivise local technology and telecom firms to develop their internal capacities which would in turn help 5G technology succeed in the country
• Promote 5G start-ups that enable this design and manufacturing capabilities.
• Promote generation of IPR backing the above designs.
• Manufacture of 5G chipsets, this may require massive investments.
• Appropriate test-beds and technology platforms to enable and help Indian technical ecosystem to have an edge in 5G.