5G was unleashed in India last year by our Prime minister and since then telecom operators- Reliance Jio and Airtel have been working hard to expand their latest offerings across the nation.
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It has been stated that the 5G service rollout could unleash a number of new economic opportunities which could help India to leapfrog the traditional barriers to development.
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It can enable the spur of innovations by startups and business enterprises, and advance the 'Digital India' vision, the Economic Survey for 2022-23 said on Tuesday.
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Tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the new survey has stated that 5G could impact consumers directly through higher data transfer speeds and lower latency.
There are use cases which have been developed by telcos and start-ups in education, health, worker safety and smart agriculture, among others, are now being deployed across the country.
"The massive wave of digitisation, increased penetration of smartphones, and adoption of technology have opened the doors for both traditional and new-age sectors," the survey further stated.
Reliance Jio has recently announced the launch of its True 5G services across 34 additional cities. With this, the telecom has reached 225 cities which are able to enjoy the new Jio True 5G services.
But believing the Economic Survey, the journey is way too far from completion, and a lot remains to be accomplished to realise the true potential of the network.
"As a major reform measure, the Indian Telegraph Right of Way (Amendment) Rules, 2022, will facilitate faster and easier deployment of telegraph infrastructure to enable speedy 5G rollout. The government has brought in procedural reforms in Wireless Licensing, including delicensing of various frequency bands to promote innovation, manufacturing and export," it read.
The National Frequency Allocation Plan 2022 (NFAP) provides a broad regulatory framework, identifying which frequency bands are available for cellular mobile services, Wi-fi, sound and television broadcasting, radio navigation for aircraft and ships, and other wireless communications.
"NFAP will give guidance to the users of the spectrum to plan their networks in accordance with the relevant frequency and parameters provided therein. Given that spectrum is a scarce resource, NFAP is useful in aligning spectrum usage with demands from emerging technologies in an efficient manner," the Survey noted.
At present, India has around 35 per cent of its towers fiberised for 5G and the backhaul infrastructure will cost a whopping Rs 3 lakh crore over the next 4-5 years, according to rating agency ICRA.
Inputs from IANS
