Connecting 100 billion devices

The mobile phone has played an important role in connecting a billion Indians. It now needs to enable machines and devices to increase industrial efficiency.

By Sanjay Malik

As the world grapples with the pandemic, we are all adapting to the new ways of working and conducting our daily lives amidst social distancing and public lockdowns. I can proudly say that that the India mobile telecommunication industry has come a long way as it enables the society and business to continue through these tough times.

Famous philosopher Lao Tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. This sounds so apt when we look back at the journey of our industry that started 25 years back with the first mobile call in July 1995.

Today, we are at the cusp of a profound shift in the Indian telecom industry. In the last 25 years, the telecom sector has been pivotal in leading India towards economic success and has completely transformed the social landscape of the country. From mobile the phone being an accessory of the rich to becoming an essential tool for development – a lot has changed for the people of this country.

• From the first 11 base stations established in Kolkata to over 1.5 million base stations today spread across the country.
• Telecom-centric technology is more accessible and affordable with the cost of deploying base-stations vastly reduced as we deploy 3-4 base stations at the cost of one base station.
• The telecom industry is generating employment for over four million people despite the humble beginning.
• From Rs 24 per minute for a call in the beginning to free access to unlimited voice calls every month for 1.2 billion subscribers.
• With the advent of 3G and 4G, India is already amongst the leading data-consuming nations today with more than 7,000 petabytes of data consumption per month.

As we enter a new era of technological advancement, we’ll see the pace of transformation increasing multifold with the advent of 5G technology.

Even though India was a few years behind the world when the first GSM call was made, today we are poised to launch 5G as it is rolled out in the rest of the world. At Nokia, we take pride in being an integral part of this digital transformation journey of India.

• Starting with the first GSM call in India on a Nokia 2110 handset over a Nokia network, today every single call in the country touches the Nokia element somewhere in a complete call flow.
• From deploying about five sites a month to over 5,000 a month, consistently.
• With the new-age technologies, Nokia is supporting India’s largest VoLTE subscriber base, the biggest cloud-based packet network, and the largest deployment of massive-MIMO.
• First telecom equipment vendor to manufacture in India transcending from importing 100% of our equipment to exporting 50% of our India-manufactured equipment to over 100 countries.
• Being one of the hubs for managing 5G deployments in addition to managing 120 networks globally.
• Moving from being mere consumers of globally developed software to undertaking research in various advanced global telecommunication technologies at our R&D Centers in India.
• What more! Our strategic partnerships with the operators have catered to the burgeoning demand for connectivity, especially during the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So, what will be the next big wave in the telecom industry? Having connected over 1 billion people in the last two decades, the industry is now headed towards connecting over 100 billion devices. This vision is also at the heart of the Digital India campaign for a technology-enabled and digitally-empowered society to drive inclusive socio-economic growth for our nation by improving access to services for the most remote communities and increasing industrial efficiency.

As we enter a new era of technological advancement, we’ll see the pace of transformation increase multifold with the advent of 5G technology. In the coming years, 5G will power a fully connected world with enhanced mobile broadband in real-time that will spawn a number of real-life use cases specifically curated for India.

The benefits of 5G will extend to agriculture – enabling soil sensors and airborne cameras to identify soil, water, and pesticide usage requirements remotely, improving yields by 20% to 40%.

As the foundation of a modern healthcare service, 5G will help save lives by powering high-resolution video consultations, assistance robots, and smart wearables to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of treatments. 5G will make telesurgery possible, allowing specialists in one hospital to control equipment in another facility hundreds of miles away.

These are just some of the transformations that the future holds for us. Nokia is guided by the vision to connect people and things over the years, directing all our efforts towards creating a connected world. With this intent, we are striving to connect the unconnected population of India by offering technology and solutions that will power the networks of tomorrow. We are excited and thrilled to witness India’s digital journey unfold as we create a digital backbone by transforming legacy networks into future-ready, agile networks.

Let’s create the future of digital India together!

The author Sanjay Malik is Senior Vice President and head of India Market, Nokia

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