Tele-health and tele-robotic surgery for the rural population are among the areas where India can benefit when 5G is rolled out, according to Nokia. Company representatives also told BusinessLine that such services could emerge as alternative revenue streams for telecom companies, which are facing financial stress.

“Instead of dealing only with end-user subscribers, 5G allows them (telcos) an opportunity to offer automation support for various industries. For example, they can tie up with the healthcare industry,” said Nitin Dahiya, head of E2E Solution Sales India, Nokia. It was reported that a surgeon in China recently performed a remote surgery on an animal using 5G.

Financial stress

Dahiya said there was visible financial stress on telcos and spectrum pricing will be important. “Spectrum pricing will be the first step in determining pricing, but pricing is a function of multiple factors,” he added.

The low cost of 4G tariffs and better network coverage are playing a large part in the rising levels of data consumption in the country.

According to Nokia’s MBiT index, released here on Thursday, overall data traffic increased by 109 per cent solely on the increase in 4G consumption. The report pegs average 4G data usage per month at over 10 GB.

Data penetration

According to the report, current data penetration in the country stands at 45 per cent and mobile data consumption is poised to increase as India reaches penetration levels of countries such as China, where it is 72 per cent.

4G prices fell by over 90 per cent over the last five years, the report said. Randeep Raina, Chief Technology Officer for Customer Operations at Nokia, said it is too early to say if 5G tariffs will be at par with 4G or lower. But, he said that India’s large population “is a driver for costs to come down.”

The 5G band in India being in sync with global standards will be an advantage for device uptake, irrespective of when 5G is deployed here. “We are already manufacturing 5G equipment in India even for the local market,” Raina added.

The report also spoke about other use case scenarios for 5G connectivity such as public safety for crowded areas using RFID tags, and live-streaming of proceedings. Private 5G networks in factories will help improve productivity, it said.

Smartphone penetration in India has also seen a huge uptick, with the number of 4G-capable devices exceeding the population of the United States. Metros reported the highest 4G-capable device penetration at 65 per cent, the report said.

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