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After lagging behind the rest of the world across four generations of technology, India has a chance to adopt 5G with the developed world.
Addressing delegates at the first edition of the ‘IoT (Internet of Things) India Congress’, Telecom Secretary J S Deepak said that with 5G there is a realistic chance of India leapfrogging onto this tech bandwagon along with other countries.
“2G was more than two decades behind, 3G a decade and 4G was adopted half a decade after the developed world,” said Deepak, adding that 5G could bridge the gap with other countries as India enters IoT, which connects a multitude of devices through the Internet.
5G will enable internet speeds much faster than 4G and will create demand for internet-connected devices.
Industry watchers point out that around 50 billion devices will be connected to the internet in the next five years, right from phones to eye glasses, which opens up an opportunity of $15 billion.
IoT policyIn line with this, the Department of Telecom has come out with a machine-to-machine (M2M) roadmap, with an aim to put regulators, industry agencies that develop standards, users and manufacturers on the same page. Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad, in a video address, said the Department of IT has developed an IoT policy, which is at the draft stage and under consultation.
Currently, work is going on in the area of numbering schemes for IoT and KYC norms for SIM-embedded M2M devices. “The Department of Telecom has requested the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for recommendations in the area of quality-of-service standards of international roaming system and requirement of additional spectrum for an IoT ecosystem in India,” added Prasad.
From the industry side, work has started but a majority of firms is cautious when it comes to adopting IoT.
Aeris, a US-based company, has come out with a handbook with an intent to guide companies in navigating the pitfalls and in adopting best practices when implementing IoT.
Matt Hatton, founder and Chief Executive Officer, Machina Research, said: “In the world of IoT, buyers are put at a disadvantage by the dizzying array of baffling acronyms and technology that evolves at lightning pace.”
Recently, Bosch opened two laboratories with an investment of ₹350 crore, which includes work in IoT and ‘Big Data’, among other things.
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