India Can Be a Frontrunner in the 5G Deployment, But a Lot Depends on Investments in Fibre Infrastructure: Manoj Sinha

India can be a frontrunner in the deployment of 5G, but a lot will hinge on bolstering investments in fibre infrastructure, which is currently inadequate and trailing countries like China, Trai Chairman R S Sharma said Thursday. Sharma noted that there had been consolidation in the Indian telecom market leading to an optimal situation of one public sector and three private sector players, and added that the sector would see stability. “In 5G space, we can leapfrog inadequacies which we have in the physical world, all of which can be overcome with the use of information and communication technologies…There is a serious concern that while people are talking of 5G as a slogan but it won’t happen unless we put a lot of investment in fibre. Without fibre, 5G will not happen,” Sharma said.

  • Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
  • Source of Google
  • Source of Google

india-5g-deployment

He was speaking at the India Digital Summit organised by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). India has only 22% of mobile towers connected on fibre, while 78% are without fibre, on wireless. China, on the other hand, has 80% connectivity through the fibre and the rest through wireless, Sharma pointed out.

“The optical fibre cable laid today till date is equal to optical fibre cable laid in China in one single year,” Sharma said adding fixed infrastructure will be critical for attaining a reliable and sustainable growth. Policies need to focus on promoting investments in infrastructure, he said.

“The National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) contains those set of policies and statements and we need to operationalise those to ensure investment,” Sharma said.