There is an enormous potential in terms of applications of 5G technology in rural India. Read on to know more…
In near future, we can see the applications of 5G technology in areas such as robotic surgeries which is performed remotely, mine equipment operated remotely. Imagine, for instance, a drone carrying critical medical supplies, such as a just-extracted human organ, navigating through a densely populated area and landing on a precise, pre-set spot. But it’s not just drones delivering organs or medical supplies in emergency situations. There are several other applications. While all these applications of 5G technology being used globally, there is an enormous potential in terms of applications of 5G technology in rural India.
The proposed rollout of 5G technology in India may be 2 or 3 years away, but the trials to utilize its full potential are in top gear. Regulators, networking device makers, telecom companies and Industry partners say that apart from meeting the massive consumer demand for data, 5G technology will open a raft of new, game-changing, uses across all sectors and Industries. Be it in drones, robotic surgeries, driverless tractors and Caterpillars in mining applications, 5G technology will always find its applications in India. Clearing the mines of these gases can sometimes take days or even weeks. However, with the usage of 5G-driven remotely-operated machinery, clearing rocks after a detonation would take only few minutes. Again, it may take some time for service providers to make these ideas financially viable and the 5G technology to be commercially exploited.
Technical Connectivity
Recently, Ericsson and Bharti Airtel showcased this capability and demonstrated how 5G technology’s network slicing feature could be used to offer guaranteed and uninterrupted Quality of Service when it comes to unmanned aerial vehicles flying over areas inhabited by thousands of people. Quality of Service (QoS) is the ability of the network to achieve maximum bandwidth while taking care of other critical network performance elements such as latency, error rate and uptime.
5G technology in India can be used for mission critical applications, Industrial IoT in remote rural areas in India. The LMLC (Low-Mobility Large-Coverage) standard that India has prescribed for all new radio systems to be classified as 5G will not necessarily provide the fastest Internet access, but will mean that fewer transmitters are needed to cover larger areas. With 5G, it could finally make financial sense for network operators to connect India’s hinterland, paving the way for faster broadband through dedicated fibre lines.
Latency — the tiny time lag that makes a web page load a few milliseconds after you click on it — could be disastrous in certain critical applications. Latency — the tiny time lag that makes a web page load a few milliseconds after you click on it — could be disastrous in certain critical applications.
The Road Ahead
To harness the full economic potential of 5G technology, India needs to build up capacity in developing fibre optic networking equipment which will be crucial in transmitting data at high speeds to the 5G base stations. From wireless transmitters to the chips that go into smartphones, the coming of 5G will create huge demand for hardware and this is where the real value is for all the players.
As India gears up to 5G technology, we need to focus on building all the different pieces needed in the 5G ecosystem — wireless, optical transmission, routers, chipsets and devices. But again, we have 2 to 3 years before 5G adoption really kicks off in India.
