Debate at the UPTIME forum today highlighted Asia Pacific’s fragmented regulatory and structural barriers for private 5G – in India, in particular, where Vodafone Idea argues IT/OT integration and use-case planning failures have hit take-up (but where telcos are ready to go with IoT service bundles).
In sum – what to know:
Integration problems – appetite is strong for private 5G in India, but deployments stall over IT/OT interoperability and business-case planning, says Vodafone Idea.
Spectrum constraints – a carrier-controlled spectrum regime and dense urban network environments make standalone private 5G deployments difficult in urban locales.
Service model – operator-led service models are gaining ground, as early enthusiasm from system integrators has given way to telcos as private 5G gets bundled with IoT.
There was an interesting early session at the UPTIME private-networks forum today that focused on Asia / Asia Pacific – much less covered in western trade media than Europe and North America. The region, as presented here, is also wildly divergent, of course, notably between regulatory frameworks in major markets like India, China, and Japan. For its part, RCR Wireless has covered the Indian market in some depth in recent months (see here, here, here, here, and search the archive), but Vodafone Idea (Vi in its marketing), mostly owned by the Indian government, addressed (some of) the idiosyncrasies in its home market during a panel at UPTIME, citing problems with IT/OT integration and use-case planning for a lack of take-up.
(Note, there was a good session from Vodafone Business at UPTIME, too – covered here.)
What it hardly mentioned – and left to the rest of the panel – was, indeed, about spectrum regulation in India, which has, as it is, hinged entirely on traditional carrier frequency holdings, and effectively rendered the whole game as a big-operator affair. This should be kept in mind, in consideration of the coverage here of Vodafone Idea’s comments at UPTIME. But R. Gopalkrishnan, executive vice president of the company’s enterprise business (and also head of its IoT business) in India, made good points, as well. “Private 5G and IoT go hand in hand. That’s how the industry is moving. That’s the right way to see the product [set] from an enterprise standpoint,” he said.
Which is the RCR Wireless view, as well – for what it’s worth. The rest of the panel – Italy-based Apeiroon (formed by the founders of Athonet, and part of the original UPTIME crowd), plus Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Pegatron and Indonesian operator XL-Smart – concurred: private 5G is a part of IoT; the same enterprise discipline, same conversation, same challenges. These challenges are familiar, talked about forever in private 5G circles. Still, it was good to get Vodafone Idea to present the Indian experience; integration (if not private spectrum availability) is the biggest one, implied Gopalkrishnan, closely linked to enterprises’ big-picture understanding of what goes on.
He said: “One of the barriers is [IT/OT] interoperability… And while demand is fueled by what can’t be done with Wi-Fi… adoption is not happening because enterprises are not able to transform themselves – [away] from legacy systems. I’ve seen it myself… [They] show great interest in 5G, but struggle with the integration, and to transform legacy systems to [handle 5G] requirements. Most have engineered [their environments] for Wi-Fi… Transforming their production ecosystem [for 5G] is a big challenge. [Because you have] the applications, the network, the security layer – and so it is more cumbersome.” Which sounds like the fault is with the enterprise, or the consultancy at least.
He cited an NTT study that “46 percent of deployments fail because of interoperability barriers”. At the same time, enterprises with “the demand, appetite, and courage to transform” are starting to “gain advantages” from private 5G in India, he said. Enterprises don’t always know why they are deploying private 5G, or just haven’t done their homework – which is part of the same problem, presumably. Gopalkrishnan said: “It doesn’t work when enterprises just want to replace technology. We’ve seen where their 5G pilots just fizzle out after a few months – because they have not defined killer use cases that fit the deployment.”
He added: “All of this – use case development, interoperability challenges, plus cap-ex requirements and spectrum problems – impedes production deployments… We see those issues on a daily basis in POCs.” Later, he remarked: “That’s how the environment is shaping up in India. [Private 5G] promises a lot of things. Enterprise adoption depends on how they transform themselves.”
There is another trend, it seems: the migration of private 5G projects into the countryside, as urban enterprises appear to struggle with interference with other systems – presumably public cellular networks. “The challenge to activate private 5G in urban areas is almost impossible. So the use cases move to the rural places by default – into mines and factories, where progress from pilots to production happens faster. It is difficult in dense urban [environments] to create an architectural buffer zone [with public networks]… One of the largest shipping companies did a [private 5G] POC for six months, and then finally moved to a public network to serve its requirements.”
If it is an issue of education and planning, one might argue that spectrum liberalisation would open the market to consultants and integrators to bridge the gap. But Gopalkrishnan suggested non-telco providers have either messed up, or just gotten out – somehow on the grounds they are less well-versed in the ways of (national) IoT. “When 5G started in India, there was a rush to [deliver] private 5G to enterprises. There was interest from system integrators – to be the 5G players for enterprises. But [it] is moving towards an operator-led model. Because 5G and IoT go hand in hand. Because use cases define the overall ROI – and because telcos are rightly positioned to unravel this.”
Maybe there is a chicken-and-egg issue with spectrum in India; or maybe private 5G and IoT are better left to big national telcos – which are also better positioned to handle some of the heavy financial lifting and deep ecosystem organisation required to transform enterprise systems, bottom-up. Gopalkrishnan said: “[Enterprises can’t handle the] upfront cap-ex… and 5G networks are going to… an as-a-service model. 5G is not just a network or a technology; it’s an enabler. So right-sizing [for enterprises], the way solutions are architectured… is an ecosystem play… with the network, the devices, the applications, the experience – and the business outcome or KPI you want to talk about.
“Telcos are ideally positioned to control the end-to-end view, or production KPIs. Telco-led opportunities are going up in the Indian market. Of course, regulation plays a strong role, and [enterprise] spectrum is regulated (carrier-owned) in India… [but] we are looking to offer a service model… Since we have a very strong IoT business, we view it as a holistic opportunity – and not just a network implementation. Enterprises want to give control or responsibility to one player, end-to-end – rather than have dispersed ownership where somebody brings the network, somebody brings the spectrum, somebody manages the applications and integrations, and so on and so forth.”
