Both Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm offer 5G networks in all major cities across India
Indian carriers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm are not seeing killer use cases of 5G technology which can help operators to monetize their investments in the 5G field, local newspaper The Economic Times reported.
According to the chief regulatory officers of Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, the low average revenue per user (ARPU) and right-of-way (RoW) issues are among the immediate pressing challenges that may affect the progress of 5G deployments in India.
“Definitely there is no killer use cases in India right now, even though societies like Korea have got gaming, which is driving the 5G uptake,” said Rahul Vatts, chief regulatory officer at Bharti Airtel.
“I think 5G is going to be a great leveler as far as our country is concerned, and we are going to really catch up with the industrialized nations. I already see a lot of use cases coming up globally,” Vatts added.
Vatts noted that Bharti Airtel has demonstrated several 5G use cases, including the trial of private 5G network at the Bosch factory in Bengaluru and a private 5G network deployment at Tech Mahindra’s Chakan facility, carried out in partnership with Tech Mahindra.
“Nowhere in the world do we have use cases exclusively for 5G except in the area of gaming. Others are all 4G use cases that have been implanted on 5G and doing a little more efficient work,” said SP Kochhar, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).
“Exclusive use cases of 5G are yet to be discovered, which can be called as killer apps. That will take time. I think those cases will emerge from India and the world will adopt them because of our flexibility of approach and the aggressiveness that operators display,” Kochhar added.
Meanwhile, Ravi Gandhi, chief regulatory officer at Reliance Jio, shared Airtel’s views in terms of the difficulties for operators to monetize 5G investments and highlighted that the lack of uniform implementation of right-of-way (RoW) continues to affect 5G network deployments.
“It is the municipalities who have to give the permission to roll out the networks, especially fiber. For 5G, it is critical to have almost 100% of the tower on 5G. With 30-50%, It will not work,” Gandhi said.
Currently, both Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm offer 5G networks in all major cities across the country. While Jio is offering standalone 5G technology (SA), Airtel has opted for Non-Standalone 5G technology (NSA). It is yet unclear whether Vodafone Idea will opt for SA or NSA architecture.
Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea is in the final stage of negotiations with banks to secure funding, which will be key for the launch of its 5G network infrastructure in the country, according to a recent report by local newspaper The New Indian Express.
The newspaper cited a senior official from the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), who explained that the carrier is likely to secure funding by June, which will enable the launch of 5G services that same month.
In January, the country’s Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, had said that state-run operator BSNL could launch 5G technology in March 2024. Vaishnaw also clarified that initially, BSNL’s 5G network will be based on the NonStandalone (NSA) architecture.
