5G rollouts are expected to take place around early October 2022. Things look set for the private telcos, and with 5G, Indian consumers will be able to get very fast mobile download and upload speeds along with lower latency networks. However, this is not all there is when we talk about 5G. SP Kochhar, Director General of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), talked with TelecomTalk about the challenges that telecom operators are going to face while rolling 5G and more. Take a look at the video below to hear the full conversation. (Pro tip - hear the conversation at 1.5x or 2x speed on YouTube or Spotify to save yourself a lot of time).
COAI's Take on Administrative Allocation of Spectrum for Private LTE or 5G Networks
Kochhar said, "COAI's take on the matter is that there should be no administrative allocation of spectrum for private networks. It should be taken through auction roots." The reason Kochhar said is that when you are taking the spectrum to offer or provide similar services, irrespective of the geography you cover, it should be given to you in the same way as it is given to the telcos. Further, the same licensing norms should be applied as are applied to the telecom players.
Kochhar also talked about the need for higher fiberisation in India. He said that currently, around 35% of the towers are fiberised in India. For 5G, towers need to be fiberised as it will be a crucial thing.
On 6G
"When we changed from 4G to 5G, it was a shift from one tech to another tech. But with 3G to 4G, it was an upgradation, not a shift of technology. Likewise, 5G to 6G would be a shift between technologies," Kochhar said.
"It will be the same set of tech, and hence the use cases that come up for 5G will immensely help in 6G. But the adoption of 6G would be much faster than 5G because it is the same technology, and as the mindsets and technology would have bedded in by the time 6G shows up. India has realised this, and the government has already started working on 6G. We are in an advanced stage of developing standards, use cases and various things. There are about 8 or 9 sub-committees which have been formed under a task force under DoT which is looking at these aspects."
Kochhar also said that for 6G rollouts, India would be a leader globally. We talked a lot more about other things. To hear the full conversation, watch the video above.
