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5G Will Create USD 27-Bn Opportunity For India: Ericsson

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5G mobile services are expected to create an over USD 27 billion business opportunity for India by 2026, says Swedish gear maker Ericsson. Currently, it is noticed that telecom operators have recorded an average top speed of around 22 mbps on their 4G networks and while 5G services tests have recorded download speed of over 1000 mbps or 1 gbps.

“5G will enable a USD 27 billion business opportunity in India. Out of this USD 13 billion is the addressable revenue opportunity for mobile operators in the country,” Ericsson India, Managing Director, Nitin Bansal told PTI as was quoted in ET. 

An Ericsson study found that manufacturing segment will see the biggest opportunity at $2.4 billion with the arrival of 5G. It will be followed by sectors like energy and utilities with a potential of worth $2.1 billion revenue. Public safety and Healthcare sectors will see a potential of $1.6 billion each.

India is aspiring to launch 5G services at par with other technologically advanced nations after standards for the technology are finalized by United Nation’s telecom body ITU in 2019. Despite the enthusiasm, a key challenge for telcos is to provide a smooth transition from 4G to 5G in India. An important factor to govern that would be deciding the required spectrum bands and its pricing. As per global standards, deploying 5G services would require a bandwidth around 3.5 GHz.

India also struggles in fibre penetration in the country which is around 25-30% and to successfully deploy 5G infrastructure, 70-80% fibre penetration is needed, believe experts.

At a recent 5G summit, Krishna Sirohi, President, Technology Innovations and Standardization, i2TB, said, “Infrastructure and services are the major challenges in achieving a 5G enabled India in its entirety. National goals of digital India can only be achieved by establishing sustainable 4G and 5G access networks. Millimetre Wave technology (5G) based terrestrial and satellite backhaul solutions are needed to extend the spread of high data rate network to every village and agricultural land and achieve a digitized agricultural and rural life.”

Nonetheless, Ericsson said it has for advance technology with Indian telecom operators which will help them in transition from 4G to 5G using the spectrum in which they are providing mobile services, Bansal was quoted as saying in the report. 

Ericsson is currently doing Massive MIMO trials with Indian telecom operators. “These products enable a smooth evolution from 4G to 5G. All radio products within Ericsson Radio System delivered since 2015 support 5G new radio capability through remote software installation. It enables fast and smooth migration to 5G in existing bands,” Bansal said. 

According to Ericsson Mobility Report, India will have over 10 million 5G subscriptions by 2023. The report said India will have over 10 million 5G subscriptions by 2023. According to Ericsson’s 5G Business Potential study, digitalization will enable a USD 27 billion revenue opportunity for the ICT industry in India by 2026. 

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