Telcos Eyeing AI, IoT For 5G Field Trials In India; When To Expect Deployment?

Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea are eyeing at Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence for 5G field trials. Notably, technologies like Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, IoT, and are likely to use in 5G technology to boost the education, agriculture, and healthcare sectors.

"Internet of Things as a technology has been thriving since the past couple of years now, and has positioned itself strongly in India for continued growth in the 5G era. Artificial Intelligence can be used in a big way in agriculture," SP Kochhar, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) was quoted by ET.

COAI Comments On Spectrum Bands

These comments of the industry body come soon after DoT allocated spectrum bands to three private players. The telecom ministry allocated 700 MHz, 3500 MHz, and 26 GHz bands to conduct trials and to develop use cases in 5G.

The industry body said that all telecom operators have been asking for spectrum for the trials and to develop India- specific use cases. These use cases will play important role in the launch of the next-generation network and might attract enterprise customers, which is expected to help telecom operators to boost their average revenue per user.

However, financial firm Motilal Oswal said that metros and few large cities are likely to get the 5G services initially. The firm highlighted that telcos might spend around Rs. Rs 78,800 crores to Rs 1.3 lakh crores in launching 5G services in metros and A cities.

On the other hand, the industry body believes that Government policies might increase the 5G adoption in the country. Kochhar said that IoT is likely to transform the healthcare sector.

"AR and VR require higher bandwidth, lower latency, and network resiliency. Thus, the advent of 5G, coupled with the use of these technologies will lead to a far more advanced and tech-centric educational landscape," he added.

Reliance Jio selected Samsung to develop a virtual classroom, whereas Airtel is working with Ericsson to develop drones. The company wants to develop drones for security.

We expect that 5G services have the potential to offer high-speed data and a proper network, which is the need of the hour. However, we believe that telcos should invest more in 4G as 5G might not be affordable for all initially.