The 5G rollout is expected to take place in early October 2022. Things are looking good 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 when we talk about 5G. SP Kochhar, Director General of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), spoke to TelecomTalk about the challenges telecom operators face while rolling 5G and more. Watch 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 vision on administrative spectrum allocation for private LTE or 5G networks
Kochhar said, “COAI’s take on the matter is that there should be no administrative allocation of spectrum. It should be taken through auction roots.” The reason Kochhar said is that when you use the spectrum to offer or provide similar services regardless of the geographic location you cover, it should be given to you in the same way it is given to the telcos. Furthermore, the same licensing standards must be applied as for the telecom players.
Kochhar also spoke of the need for higher fiberization in india. He said that about 35% of the towers in India are currently fiberized. For 5G, towers will need to be fiberized, as this will be critical.
on 6G
“When we moved from 4G to 5G, it was a shift from one technology to another technology. But with 3G to 4G, it was an upgrade, not a technology shift. Likewise, 5G to 6G would be a technology shift,” he said. Kochhar.
“It will be the same set of technology, and therefore the use cases that emerge for 5G will help tremendously in 6G. But the adoption of 6G would be much faster than 5G because it is the same technology, and because the mindset and technology would are embedded by the time 6G pops up. India has realized this and the government has already started working on 6G. We are at an advanced stage of developing standards, use cases and various things. There are about 8 or 9 sub – committees formed under a task force under DoT looking at these aspects.”
Kochhar also said India would be a global leader for 6G rollout. We talked a lot more about other things. Watch the video above to hear the full conversation.
