Is 5G the next revolution for us?

In the last 25 years, a lot of telecom revolutions have kept India going forward. The landline. The PCO booth. The Internet dial-up line. The smartphone. The mobile broadband revolution. Mobile ecommerce and delivery during the pandemic. So now is 5G the next big thing for India?

The promises of 5G are huge. In theory at the maximum, it can give an Internet connection of 10Gbps. Due to its higher bandwidth, it can seamlessly connect to multiple devices: The desktop, laptop, tab and mobile. So bye bye your current broadband provider? Once the whole country is connected, you could carry it in your pocket anywhere you go.

It’s great for the Internet of Things (IoTs), machine to machine interaction in Industry 4.0 and quite handy in the cloud world and it can take the Edge everywhere. Companies and institutions could have their own private networks. It could bind together the Smart Universe of: Smart Homes, Smart Factories, Smart Cars and Smart Utilities.

But it won’t be that easy. We went from 2G to 3G to 4G. In a way it was seamless and all three co-exists together. (Yes, there is a small fraction of 2G users even today). But the infrastructure for 5G is something else altogether. It won’t be that easy and we will have to do it in stages with city centres and commercial areas first. God knows if Tier 2/3 cities and rural areas will ever get 5G.

There are also critics who talk of an increased risk of security, spying and interference with weather satellites.  In the US, airports reported some problems with 5G towers while in the UK these towers were burned down over conspiracy theories related to Covid.

In all, dozens of telecom players have been involved in the Indian story with mergers, acquisitions, exits and shutdowns making the current field quite small. The 5G auctions are seeing only 4 players: Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Adani.

Airtel is the oldest surviving telecom player which has retained its name. Vodafone Idea has survived thanks to a series of deals. Jio just a few years back shook the entire market. Adani, flush with funds, is the latest entrant. BSNL is still struggling to implement 4G all across the country. The churn will continue. One still can’t imagine what the situation will be a few years after 5G is implemented.

But for the consumer, it just means that he will have a super consistent broadband connection. For the industry it will just mean more scope of innovation and a chance to offer consumers even more things.

Here’s hoping that the 5G revolution takes the India Tech story to greater heights.