Migration to 5G will be challenging for India: Experts
NEW DELHI: Aligning with the global markets for 5G technology will be a
journey full of roadblocks for India, industry stakeholders and experts
said and pointed out that backhaul will be a major challenge in the
migration from existing networks to 5G with less than 20 per cent Indian
networks running via fibre optic cables.”One of the fundamental
requirements for 5G is strong backhaul, which is simply not there and
that is the most time consuming part and it is extremely expensive in
today’s condition in India,” Jalaj Choudhri, EVP, Reliance
Communications said.Backhaul is a network that connects cells sites to
central exchange. Even if India is able to circumvent the challenges of
standardisation and 5G truly becomes available by 2020, yet a good 5G
network cannot be expected unless we have a reliable and strong
backhaul.In India, 80% of cell sites are connected through microwave
backhaul, while under 20% sites are connected through fibre. Analysts
say microwave backhaul has bandwidth issue since it uses traditional
bands providing 300 Mbps of capacity, whereas fiber-based backhaul can
offer unlimited capacity and low latency, a perquisite for 5G
applications.”Fibre infrastructure has to be considered civic
infrastructure rather than a property of the service provider. The
investment has to be made through civic bodies so that service providers
can actually leverage that infrastructure,” said Choudhri.Chinese
telecom gear maker Huawei’s director, marketing and integrated
solutions, Chandan Kumar, said that besides identifying a new spectrum
for the Indian market and harmonising it with the global spectrum
strategy, there is a need for a robust backhaul network.”We advocate
that robust backhaul network is a must for 5G adoption. Otherwise, we
will be ready technology-wise and spectrum-wise, but if our backhaul is
not flexible and sufficiently available, that could be a bottleneck for
5G adoption,” Kumar said.Larry Paulson, President, Qualcomm India, said
telecom operators here will need to make a business case judgement on
what are the leading applications for 5G.Experts believe 5G technology
will be a gateway of sorts for a truly connected society. It is slated
to power a host of new-age services such as machine-to-machine (M2M)
communications, Internet of Things (IoT), connected smart cities,
self-driving cars, remote control surgery to virtual reality.Likewise, a
5G-powered IoT environment could enable someone to connect his home to a
wireless network by embedding it with electronics, software or sensor
technology. A typical example could be a remote operation of a house’s
security system.”Under 20% of total towers are fiberised in India, while
global benchmarks are much higher. Fiberisation of towers will be key
to increasing backhaul capacity.Furthermore, installation of higher
capacity microwave links where fibre laying is problematic also a
solution,” said Rohan Dhamija, head for India and South Asia at Analysys
Mason.The commercial launch of 5G technology is likely to take place
around 2019-2020 globally. In India, field, content and application
trials will start around 2018.
Read more: Migration to 5G will be challenging for India: Experts
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
Read more: Migration to 5G will be challenging for India: Experts
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com