Enterprise & Private Networks

We need to have more towers fiberized. We are at 35%. We need to move that to at least 70% by the end of next year. – TR Dua, DG, DIPA.

There were over 750 private networks deployed globally, as of Jan. 2022. As the ecosystem matures, challenges will be taken care of. From an Indian perspective, manufacturing, automation, education, etc., are the areas that will benefit. – Aditya Khaitan, Partner, Consulting, Deloitte India.

We also need to have IT governance and security. There will be a transition, along with the new ecosystem. We need to have the inter-working of everything together. – Himanshu Gupta, Country Manager, Telecom, Media & Entertainment, HPE India.

We have already seen the benefits of 4G. How this will evolve is going to be massive. There will be a very efficient and targeted way of deploying 5G. Use cases are going to be developed here in India.- Kapil Ahuja, CEO (North), Reliance Jio.

During TLF 5G held on September 13, 2022, there was a session on the role 5G will play for enterprises and private networks. The moot question was, what is going to be the impact of 5G? Shubhendu Parth, former editor, Dataquest and Voice&Data, was the moderator.

Tilak Raj Dua, Director General, DIPA, said we need to look at NTPC 2018, where we need to take a holistic view. We look at Industry 4.0 and see whether the Indian industry is ready for it. 5G auctions have now been done. We have the infrastructure side for network equipment. We have to provide coverage and capacity. We need to get a return on investment (RoI). New amendment to the guidelines has come in. For densification, we need to have more base stations. Enterprises and private networks have to address all of this.

There are currently some infrastructure challenges that will be taken care of over time. We need to have more towers fiberized. We are at 35%. We need to move that to at least 70% by the end of next year. We can also do fiber sharing to reduce the capex. Some models are already available for study and use. We will meet all those challenges.

Aditya Khaitan, Partner, Consulting, Deloitte India, said the use cases across industries are across supply chains. They are enabling all aspects. Telcos are now putting up more roadshows with enterprises, and use cases are getting developed. There were over 750 private networks deployed globally, as of Jan. 2022. As the ecosystem matures, challenges will be taken care of. From an Indian perspective, manufacturing, automation, education, etc., are the areas that will benefit.

In terms of core challenges, we will see a plethora of use cases right now. Every use case may lead to different deployment options. We need to have the evolution of use cases. From a CIO perspective, we will see integration with the existing platforms. One size does not fit all! Planning is critical.

Himanshu Gupta, Country Manager Telecom, Media & Entertainment, HPE India, said there are focus areas for 5G. Broadband connectivity can be prime. China has already put over 7,000 5G towers. They have a plan to build 5 million towers by 2025. The way they are developing should be looked at very seriously. The pace of growth for private 5G has been slow. Rel-17 was only frozen in 2022. There is a lot at stake for our country. Private 5G can be a game changer for India over the next 5-7 years. The economic impact will be much higher. We are ready!

We will have eMBB and URLLC that will come up fast. These will propel the motion forward. We also need to do ecosystem development. We also need to have IT governance and security. There will be a transition, along with the new ecosystem. We need to have the inter-working of everything together. We need to decide on the RoI. We can start with introspection first. We can then map that with apps, etc., and do experimentation, along with strategies. We need to have investments that can help evolve organizations to a huge digital platform. We need to have partnerships. HP has a solution called 5G-in-a-box.

Kapil Ahuja, CEO (North), Reliance Jio, said there are five things offered by 5G. These are data, 10x speed, low latency, the true sense of fixed-mobile convergence, and cloud, mobile, and IoT. The economic impact is going to be huge. We have embraced technology. The current consumption of data is huge. A lot is going to be offered to enterprises. Healthcare, education, and agriculture will see the massive impact of 5G. We have already seen the benefits of 4G. How this will evolve is going to be massive. There will be a very efficient and targeted way of deploying 5G. Use cases are going to be developed here in India. Challenges include access networks. Model two is a mix. Last is the standalone network. 5G is going to bridge the digital divide between large and small enterprises.