First live 5G networks has been deployed around the world. Ericsson is powering 79 of these live networks in four continents. According to an Ericsson report, in the India region, 5G will represent around 27 percent of mobile subscriptions in India at the end of 2026, estimated at about 350 million subscriptions. With 5G expected to create a lot of opportunities for both consumers and enterprises, we spoke with Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, India Head-Networks, Market Area South East Asia, Oceania and India at Ericsson, to get his perspective on how 5G will impact Indian operators, enterprises and the end consumer.
Some edited excerpts:
How prepared is India for 5G?
5G is the fifth generation of cellular networks, an ultra-reliable low latency communications technology that will do much more than significantly improve the network connection – it will provide capabilities that will create new opportunities for people, businesses, and society. It is about connecting things anywhere and anytime – imagine billions of connected devices gathering and sharing information in real time to reduce road accidents; or production lines so predictive they can prevent interruptions well before they occur.
We believe India is ready for 5G and affordable 5G spectrum needs to be made available to the operators. Given the ‘long-term benefits’ that 5G technology will bring to India, it needs to be viewed as critical
infrastructure and the foundation on which the Digital India vision can be realized.
From a technology readiness perspective, Ericsson is ready to roll out 5G in India having deployed it across 85+ live networks across the globe. The Ericsson Radio System hardware has been 5G-ready since 2015 enabling operators to upgrade to 5G with a remote software installation. As India gets ready to embark on its 5G journey, we are committed to working with our customers, partners, and the academic community to design and curate India-specific use-cases and to create the right ecosystem for 5G in India.
From a consumer standpoint, there is a huge interest for 5G in India and much more importantly, they are prepared to pay a premium for the all-new capabilities that 5G brings.
How has the consumer behavior pattern changed during COVID-19 and how have the mobile operators handled this crisis? Has COVID-19 interrupted the emergence of 5G in the world?
The pandemic outbreak and the lockdown restrictions have spotlighted the importance of resilient networks given the surge in data and voice traffic. This wave of data explosion has emerged as a significant trend as people all over the world including India are spending more time at home due to lockdowns and movement restrictions thus, leading to unprecedented changes in traffic patterns – traffic is shifting from downtown to residential and suburban areas as increasing number of people are working from home.
This added load on networks has led to network re-planning and end-to-end re-dimensioning activities focusing on network design, capacity, performance, and traffic handling, to ensure that customer experience from the network is not compromised. Leveraging AI/ML tools have allowed service providers to act on network bottlenecks and in eliminating incidents and failures. Service providers continue to make necessary changes to respond to the evolving situation with speed and agility as well as invest in the networks to boost capacity to be able to tackle the demand.
As per the recent Ericsson Mobility Report, traffic growth in the country continues an upward trajectory and India remains the region with the highest monthly usage per smartphone user in the world. In India, the rapid adoption of 4G combined with people working from home and their reliance on mobile networks to stay connected has contributed to the average traffic per smartphone user increasing from 13.5GB per month in 2019 to around 15 GB per month in 2020.
We believe COVID has really emphasized the need for connectivity and 5G underpins the need for accelerated and seamless experiences for consumers and enterprises both.
What are some 5G use-cases we will see for the Indian consumer?
Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and fixed wireless access (FWA) are anticipated to be the early use-cases for 5G in India. These proposals will contribute to addressing the concern of the limited fixed broadband penetration levels in India and enhance the data experience while on the move. The Consumer Lab study on ‘expectations from 5G’ states the Indian consumers expect 4K streaming and AR app usage to increase with the availability of 5G and are willing to pay a premium for 5G services. Over time, we expect more enterprise related use cases to come up leveraging the benefits of 5G in sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, education etc.
How will 5G benefit the operators?
There are essentially two factors driving the demand for 5G in India:
– First is the ever-increasing data demand – as per the recent Ericsson Mobility Report, India is expected to touch 350 million 5G subscriptions by 2026, accounting for 27 percent of all mobile subscriptions. Thus, for operators, it means that they not only need to manage the data traffic while ensuring high-quality customer experience but, also do it in a cost-effective manner. Here, 5G reduces the cost per GB for mobile operators by a factor of 10.
– Second, 5G will allow operators to take advantage of new revenue streams by tapping the opportunities created by industrial digitalization. Ericsson’s report on ‘5G for business’ forecasts for the industrial digitalization market for service providers could grow to USD 700 billion by 2030. In India, this number is estimated to be USD17 Billion.
Hence, there is a powerful business case for the service providers to continue investing in cost-efficient solutions to effectively manage the data traffic for delivering seamless network experience for end consumers as well as the new use cases that will come up leveraging the 5G platform.