When 5G wireless network will be released in India
Although news on 5G network trials worldwide is common these days. Present Government in India has pledged that India will not lag behind in launching 5G services and expected to start in 2020. But honestly common man may not soon get real 5G network .The reasons for it are obvious looking at history and pace of technological change in India.
Fierce competition in Telecom Sector and Huge Debt
It is to be noted that telecom services in India are cheapest in the world leaving very less margin for the operators to earn. Telecom operators are already under debt burden of more than 7 lakh crores.While 5G network infrastructure needs huge investment ,how operators will repay their existing debt in such market conditions is a big question.
Small Coverage area of 5G
5G wireless technology uses high frequencies in the 20-50 Ghz band thus coverage of such BTS will be one tenth of present 3G or 4G towers working in 2100 Mhz and 1/20th to 2G and 4G working in 800 and 900 Mhz band. To ensure proper coverage operators will be required further investment in the construction of tower ,along with upgrading existing mobile towers.
Costly 5G Devices
4G was first launched in 2012 by AIRTEL. It took 4-5 years till late 2016 when common man experienced 4G services with cheap devices provided by RJIO. Still services offered by telecom operators in the name of 4G are not upto the 4G standars.While 4G boast of 100-300 Mbps speeds , max speed experienced by users is below 25 Mbps. To give 5G services operators has to launch chep 5G devices bundled with monthly plans to make this technology accessible to common man .
Limitation of OFC media in cities
Although most of the telecom operators are having there ofc media for providing data bandwidth to mobile towers, still number of such towers are working on microwave links these towers needs to be connected with the optical fiber to provide bandwidth of 1 Gbps or more . While it seems quite easy but not the reality.
In cities which are already developed giving fiber to every tower require laying of fiber ,crossing of roads .In cities already Gutter line, pipelines , Electricity line are laid underground.Laying of fibers to every society or colony may cause damage to damage to these services . While cable operators uses electricity poles ,trees and rooftops without permission for overhead lines it can't be telecom operators.
Scrapping of Old tower Equipments
While implementing new technology operators have extra burden of handling old equipments till all the customer migrate to new technology.
While GSM technology has lasted nearly 18 years and will be in use for few more years ,3G is going to be scrapped as its spectrum is being used by old operators to provide 4G services . All operators are facing shortage of 4G spectrum , scrapping 3G is only solution to avoid further investment in Spectrum purchase. Customers using 3G needs to be migrated in 4G or customers are required to replace their devices.
While GSM technology has lasted nearly 18 years and will be in use for few more years ,3G is going to be scrapped as its spectrum is being used by old operators to provide 4G services . All operators are facing shortage of 4G spectrum , scrapping 3G is only solution to avoid further investment in Spectrum purchase. Customers using 3G needs to be migrated in 4G or customers are required to replace their devices.
Deficit of Rural infrastructure
While operators are planning for 5G services their main focus is on big cities from where they can generate sufficient revenue. While rural area is concern there is no sufficient infra and revenue generation where any opearator can bet on investment. While government is subsidising wi-Fi hotspot in rural areas this is limited to rural exchanges of BSNL with coverage of mere 100 meters and bandwidh of 2Mbps. Thus providing 5G services without interruption across the nation is day's dream.
What can be done by Government
While it is a matter of debate that what Govenment can do to ensure that customers could not be cheated in the name 5G few suggestions are:
1. In cities state government should be involved and common duct can be made by R&B across the roads and along the roads which can be utilised by all the operators for laying of fibers, for that operators could be charged.This will reduce the expenditure of operators. Alongwith 5G network require tower situated like streetlights situated in the divider , which is not possible without government's support.
2. Operators should be allotted spectrum in affordable price so that they could invest more in infrastructure to provide seamless services.
3. Services in rural areas to be subsidised or hotspot with coverage of minimum 1 km should be installed with sufficient bandwidth.A sit is not possible to invest heavily in rural areas without revenue generation.
Although all the operators including Government owned BSNL are working with tehnological giants like, Nokia, Erricson, etc to create environment for 5G services , Indian people may see mere upgrade of 4G or 4G+ in the name of 5G network without proper support from Government of India. It is said that 5G wireless network will provide data speeds in 1-100 Gbps, while in India 4G could not touch 100 Mbps even after 2 years of service launch . Meanwhile AIRTEL have tested 500 Mbps speed during testing LAA technology recently but it yet to be implemented nationwide.
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