5G has been a major topic of debate over the past few years, with telecommunications companies Jio and Airtel declaring plans for 5G in India while waiting for the March 2021 auction process and government permissions. Unfortunately, the spectrum set to be released on March 1st of this year does not cover the necessary frequency band for 5G services.

That being said, speedy connectivity is something that millions of smartphone users are looking forward to. India has yet to launch 5G services, and many consumers are eagerly awaiting them. It is now predicted that when 5G is offered in India for consumers, about 40 million people would migrate to 5G during the first year of its launch.

The forecasts are based on Ericsson’s research into the impact of 5G on current mobile phone users across nations and what people anticipate the technology to bring in the future.

In this blog, we will answer most of the pressing questions you might have about 5G in India.

In comparison to 4G LTE, 5G is designed to not only provide faster and more reliable mobile broadband services but also to expand into new service areas such as mission-critical communications and connecting the massive IoT.

When Will 5G Release In India?

This question has been asked time and again, and unfortunately, we still don’t have a definite answer.

The latest parliamentary panel, chaired by Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, stated that the rollout of 5G technology will be delayed. According to the panel report given in Parliament, the government anticipates 5G services to be available in early 2022 following another spectrum auction in 6 months.

The Standing Committee on Information Technology chastised the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for delaying the deployment of 5G services, despite the fact that other nations have already deployed the next-generation technology.

The panel study, which questioned the planning and implementation, also stated that 2G was implemented internationally in 1991 although in India in 1995, and 3G was introduced globally in 1998 but in India 10 years later. Seven years after its global debut in 2008, 4G services were launched in India.

As per the media outlet PTI, the council has been notified that 5G will be available in India to a certain extent for specific applications by the end of the fiscal year 2021 or the starting of 2022.

Will 5G Require A New SIM?

According to current conversations, the 5G network would not require a separate SIM card, and sources indicate that the transition to 5G will vary from previous generation transitions.

“5G wireless technology is intended to offer greater multi-Gbps peak data rates, ultra-low latency, enhanced dependability, enormous network capacity, greater availability, and a more consistent user experience to more people,” as per Qualcomm.

5G Adoption Rate In India

According to Nitin Bansal, Director of Ericsson India as well as Director of Network Solutions Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania & India, the Ericsson Consumer Lab research has some intriguing findings. With certain Indian service providers actively preparing for 5G compatibility, “at least 40 million smartphone users in India might adopt 5G in the first year of its availability.”

Aside from that, the research found that Indian customers are prepared to spend up to 50% more for 5G plans that include digital services, as opposed to the 10% premium for 5G connection.

Moreover, according to the Ericsson research, 67% of consumers have shown an interest in updating their network to 5G, a 14 percentage point rise from 2019. With all this, India has the majority of people that are eager to migrate to 5G services.

Seven of the ten early adopters of the technology predict faster speeds than 4G. Six out of ten customers, on the other hand, anticipate certain “pricing innovations from Communication Service Providers, such as 5G data sharing amongst relatives or across devices.”

Users of 5G-enabled smartphones in India have been spending lots of time on improved video and multiplayer mobile games. “Consumers anticipate spending 7.5-8 hours per week on XR applications by 2025,” according to the report.

5G Testing & ISPs In India

5G trial bandwidth has been assigned to telcos in the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz, and 26 GHz bands. Airtel and Jio have already said that their networks are 5G enabled and that they are seeking enough spectrum from the DoT.

Reliance Jio as well as Bharti Airtel have begun testing their individual 5G networks in Mumbai and Gurgaon. Other firms, such as Vodafone-Idea and the state-owned MTNL, are anticipated to start testing the next-generation network soon. Having said that, there has been no announcement on the spectrum auctions.

According to previous reports, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has postponed the spectrum auctions until next year. While we await official confirmation, a fresh rumor suggests that the speedier cellular network will be widely available next year.

According to ET, the DoT has received 16 applications for 5G field experiments utilizing both foreign and indigenous technologies. The Department of Telecom is establishing India-specific 5G use case laboratories in sectors such as education, medical care, farming, public security, and finance.

According to GSA statistics, commercial 5G networks are now operational in 61 countries across the world (Global mobile Suppliers Association). In these nations, 144 operators have deployed commercial 3GPP-compliant 5G services.

The 5G value chain (which includes OEMs, operators, content creators, app developers, and consumers) could support up to 22.8 million employment, or more than one job for every Beijing resident.

The Importance of 5G In India

Companies think that improving 5G infrastructure should really be a major priority, and that the country should be prepared with a resilient, scalable, and smart system capable of managing huge traffic increases.

As per infrastructure firms, the shift to the 5G network must be made in order to provide the public with maximum accessibility via technology, even when doing chores such as buying a property or seeing a doctor.

“This change is posing new security concerns, increasing traffic, requiring more bandwidth, and necessitating greater speed and lower latency. A mix of different networks, clouds, CDNs, and edge are used to do this, providing new avenues for hackers to target vulnerabilities “F5’s Dhananjay Ganjoo, MD India and SAARC, made the observation.

Vulnerability and Safety of 5G networks

According to F5’s Dhananjay Ganjoo, network operators will need to secure their networks on a large scale, at every layer, against numerous cyber attacks.

“The edge solutions available today are insufficient to defend SPs from cyber attacks. Edge 2.0 is a new edge concept that is required. An open-edge platform, software-defined on public clouds, with enhanced security and ‘build once, deploy everywhere’ technology,” noted Ganjoo.

The sheer amount and speed of data flow on 5G networks, along with the increasing number of devices anticipated on these networks, gives threat actors a larger surface area from which to launch their assaults. This is causing worry among regulators, legislators, and service providers throughout the world.

Malicious performers never appear to take a break and have always operated from a distance. With India’s main telecom carriers preparing to welcome 5G with the appropriate amount of spectrum based on population density.

“Trying to secure access to services from the internet edge to the device might be difficult given the increasing number of connected devices,” said Parimal Pandya, General Manager, Asia Pacific & Japan, Akamai Technologies.

Amar Mandhyan, Chairman Technical Sales, CommScope, revealed the significance of a RAN open ecosystem that delivers a “sustainable, inventive, open, safe, various and inventive wireless technology chain that encourages new business opportunities and revenue streams to be used in next-generation apps and services.”

According to IMT-2020 specifications, 5G is expected to achieve peak data rates of up to 20 Gbps.

As more of our day-to-day activities are done online, the need for a fast and secure network becomes inevitable. Considering multiple countries have already deployed and upgraded 5G connection, there’s no doubt that we will be able to benefit from its speeds in India soon too. Keep reading Selectra to get real-time updates and all the latest information on 5G in India.