Indian Government lagged when 3G and 4G were on the rise and the Government failed to implement these technologies on time. Even now, 3G technology isn’t accessible to everyone and the people of India thrive on slower speeds on 2G.
Now, supporting Digital India initiative by PM Narendra Modi, the Government has started its work on the roll out of 5G, which is expected to be done by 2020. Stockholm has already conducted trials on 5G in its country and experienced the quality of internet, as well as the interconnection of automobiles and gadgets.
China has also started conducting trials of 5G, and since India has to keep up with the developing nation, it must start work on the implementation of 5G by 2020. 5G is not only expected to offer extremely fast internet, but will provide support to Internet of Things as well.
The government has formed a research team to establish ground work on 5G technology, and has already filed 100 patents so far. This team comprises of researchers from IISc Bangalore, IIT Bombay, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology, IIT Madras.
Of these 100 patents, 10 have already been granted and the rest are still under scrutiny. The researchers are expected to add a lot of patents in the next few years, till the technology is available for commercial use. These patents will allow India generate indigenous IP which will in-turn provide bargaining power to the country.
Kiran Kuchi, a professor at the department of electrical engineering at IIT Hyderabad said, “We are scaling up fast and switching gears because 5G is just around the corner”. To these researchers, companies like Reliance Jio, Tejas Networks and other similar startups are also offering help.
This research project lead by the top institutes in India, was commissioned by the ministry of Electronics and IT and was approved in September 2015 with a budget of Rs. 36.51crore over a period of three years.
Will India be able to solve the network issues presently?
At the moment, only 25% of the Indians have access to internet and use it. By 2020 this figure is expected to go up to 45%, which isn’t good but isn’t any bad either. On the other hand, such slow start can be attributed to the 2G scams and slower implementation of internet in India.
Penetration of India is also an issue and good internet as well as higher connectivity are mostly concentrated in cities. Even though we have a population of 1.25 billion and growing, the number of people who can use internet is just around 30 million and for us to progress, we need to ensure internet is made a household necessity.
Also, India is at a stage where even 3G isn’t available in small towns and villages, forget 4G. Even in large cities, 4G internet sees disruptions in connectivity and the tariffs become a deterrent to the growth.
For 5G to be a success, the Government has decided to plan in advance and learn from its mistakes. Even though we have 5 years till the actual commercial launch, we have enough time to assess the demographics and the geography of India to start work on the high-speed internet service.
Source: ET
