NEW DELHI: Amid euphoria around the launch of 5G services in India, experts have cautioned that India needs to fill many ‘gaps’ before it realises the dreams of successful 5G deployment. The biggest hurdle is inadequate infrastructure.
According to them, 5G deployment would require a lot of infrastructure-related investments -- fibre and a dense network of towers and small cells. They say India currently has 33-35 per cent of fiberised towers, as against a high degree of penetration in countries such as the US, Japan and China. Thus, for the proper rollout of 5G service, India needs to have at least 70 per cent fiberasation.
“At present, only 33-35 per cent of towers are fiberised, as against a high degree of penetration in countries like the US, Japan and China. This will require significant CAPEX. Further, for the 3300-3600 MHz spectrum used in 5G will require a dense network of towers and small cells. Moreover, the retail use cases for 5G are limited and in nascent stages,” said Ankit Jain, vice president and sector head, of ICRA Limited.
India is aggressively pushing for a 5G rollout in the country, and the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has urged telecom operators to quickly upgrade their network to 5G. Recently, the government nudged mobile companies including Apple and Samsung to upgrade their devices to be 5G-enabled.
Meanwhile, telecom operators Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, which have claimed to have their 5G service in many cities, are yet to deploy 5G radios on towers. Jio said it would spend nearly Rs 2 lakh crore on building its 5G network, and cover the entire country with 5G service by December 2023.
However, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have not spelt their investment plan in the 5G network. “It will take specific time for the 5G rollout drive to reach rural areas, which constitute the larger chunk of the population,” said Nitin Kunkolienkar, President Emeritus, MAIT.
Another obstacle that may delay the proper 5G expansion in the country is pricing. Prachir Singh, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research opines if tariff plans are normal like 4G plans, people won’t hesitate to adopt them. He warned if the telco raises the price of 5G services, people will think before adopting the 5G network. It will hamper the rollout of the 5G service.
5G deployment hurdles for telcos