The global roll-out of 5G commercial services is expected by 2020.
India government is taking various measures for the sooner deployment of the technology.
What is 5G technology?
5G promises ultra-reliable, very fast speeds and high bandwidth mobile connectivity, which provides peak speeds of 20 times, compared with 4G.
It is expected to provide 10-plus Gbps speeds, which allow access to high-bandwidth multimedia and data services for various industry applications.
5G is intended to support mission-critical applications such as financial transactions and healthcare, and latency and high speed will be achieved through the use of Fibre optic cables.
What are Prospects for 5G in India?
High-speed broadband remains the top priority for telecom service providers, the government and the citizens alike.
5G will significantly contribute in transforming everyday lives of Indians by resolving real issues within e-healthcare, e-education, infrastructure and e-governance.
This technology would entail accelerating the BharatNet programme for deploying connectivity infrastructures.
What are the measures taken by India in this regard?
Bharat Net - BharatNet project was establish in 2017, to provide digital infrastructure on a non-discriminatory basis by an affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households.
The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to the rural India.
National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) -National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) is an ambitious initiative to trigger a broadband revolution in rural areas.
It aims to connect all the Gram panchayats in the country and provide 100 Mbps connectivity to all gram panchayats (GPs).
NTP- Union government has initiated measures to introduce 5G technology in India via the National Telecom Policy (NTP), from March 2018.
It aims to achieve 100% tele-density, high-speed internet highways and delivery of citizen-centric services electronically.
Forum to develop 5G roadmap - Recently, the Department of Telecommunications set up a high-level forum to develop the roadmap for operationalizing 5G services in India by 2020.
Waivers for Private telecoms -The government also announced a subsidy of `3,600 crore to private telecom players such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Reliance Jio to set up Wi-Fi in rural areas as part of the second phase of the BharatNet project.
