A year after the launch of 5G services by telecom operators – Airtel and Jio, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has started a consultation process to identify the policy challenges as well as suggest right framework and approach for faster adoption of 5G.
The consulation process comes at a time when the enterprise segment, especially micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) has been slow in their digital transformation journeys and adoption of 5G. Further, owing to an absence of meaningful usecases of 5G for enterprises, there has been a slow take-up.
“In addition to the deployment of 5G infrastructure, development and deployment of new use cases for consumers and enterprises are essential for wide-spread adoption and full realisation of the potential of 5G technology,” Trai said in the consultation paper on ‘Digital Transformation through 5G Ecosystem’.
One of the approaches for increasing the 5G adoption will be to integrate within AI, extended reality, and internet of things (IoT) applications. However, the same will not only require collaboration between the telecom operators and other companies, but also the market readiness to unlock 5G benefits, Trai noted.
In the 172-page consultation paper, the telecom regulator has sought comments on measures to strengthen the cross-sector collaboration for development and adoption of 5G use cases, any barriers in development of 5G use cases, policy measures required to promote use of IoT (internet of things) technology and its infrastructure for 5G, as well as challenges faced by MSMEs in India in adoption of Industry 4.0.
At present, only Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are the two telecom operators offering 5G services. The two telcos have surpassed the three-year 5G network rollout target given to them within six months by setting up more than 300,000 sites as of August 2023.
Besides 5G, Trai also addressed concerns over security and privacy issues with regard to IoT applications and devices. Through one of the questions, it has sought views on regulatory and policy interventions required to ensure privacy of the massive amount of sensitive user data generated by IoT applications in the context of Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023.
Among other things, the regulator also pressed for the need to have a policy framework for responsible development and use of Metaverse, especially at a time when there are instances of crimes reported on the new AI platform.