A senior government official said on Thursday 5G use can make India a global hub as it’s offering affordable and practical use cases, the country is now bringing together IT companies, startups, vertical industries, academia, and telecom companies to develop 5G use cases for the masses through the 5G hackathon project. under the 5G hackathon project, India finalized 100 5G use cases It received over 1,024 applications in the last 6 months under phase one.
in the last year India has allowed telecom operators and gear vendors to start 5G field trials having received multiple applications Indian telcos through their representative body, COAI, urged the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to clear 5G applications last week at the crucial spectrum roadmap meeting which was attended by the telecom regulator, TRAI.
At the 5G Hackathon virtual event India’s Telecom secretary Mr. Anshu Prakash said.
“We want 5G not merely because it’s a new technology-enhanced mobile broadband is important, it will help us, our communication will become better, our messaging will become faster, but the real challenge of this technology is how to apply 5G’s technology benefits for the betterment of India, Indians, and for the globe because India can become a hub of 5G applications,”
The DoT had roped in executives from global and domestic technology companies, telecom operators, government officials, and directors of Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) to finalize these 5G use cases. The DoT said that it approved the highest (24) 5G use cases in the domain of healthcare, education, and governance category, followed by agriculture technology and livestock segment (18), and environment public safety & disaster management (13).
Selected companies will be provided with financial aid and access to existing testbeds for these 100 5G use cases for commercial applicability. India has spent Rs 240 crore ($32.43 million) to set up 5G testbeds at five IITs with 200 researchers.
Words by Mr. Prakash “India can take the lead in linking innovations with inter-sectoral use-cases which is a unique feature of 5G…India should also strive to be the first in making 5G beneficial for the poor and the masses, and not just for the rich and fancy,”
He said that India could certainly be the first country globally to use 5G for the public good. “…we can certainly be the first in coming out with 5G innovations and affordable 5G based solutions to solve everyday problems.”
Currently, India just has just 175 MHz spectra available for 5G services with a cap of 50 MHz per telecom operator. India has four telecom operators, which means all players may not be able to get even 50MHz.
Indian telecom operators have sought at least 80 MHz of spectrum in the mid-band, which the government identified for 5G services in the first phase of the rollout. Industry analysts said that ideally, every telecom operator must get 100 MHz spectrum blocks to build an efficient 5G network in line with global 5G networks.
