Paulson was speaking at the third edition of EmTech India, organised by Mint and MIT Technology Review. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint
New Delhi: The 5G dialogue is remarkably relevant for India and is expected to globally redefine a range of industries such as transport, healthcare and logistics, Larry Paulson, president, Qualcomm India, said.
Paulson was speaking at the third edition of EmTech India, organised by Mint and MIT Technology Review.
“Mr Mukesh Ambani has said data is the new oil and that’s quite real...our (Qualcomm) CEO has said that 5G is the new electricity,” Paulson said.
5G is expected to be globally available by 2021, he added.
5G is the next generation wireless access technology which not only promises higher data capacity and speeds faster than 10 GB per second, but also possesses the capacity to connect billions of devices.
According to industry estimates, 5G will bring down the cost of transmitting packets of data on the network to one-tenth of that on a 4G network.
“US, Japan, Western Europe, Korea and China will have commercial deployments of 5G next year,” Paulson said.
Back in India, the department of telecommunications has set up a high-level panel to devise strategies for early deployment of 5G services. The panel is tasked with developing a competitive product portfolio for 5G with an objective of targeting 50% of Indian market and 10% of global market over the next seven years.
“5G is one of the most important emerging areas for India and 5G push will act as a catalyst for India’s flagship Digital India mission,” telecom minister Manoj Sinha said at the Convergence India 2018 on 7 March.
The government has also announced its support to set up a 5G test bed at IIT Madras.
“India has a billion SIMs...(but) 500 million people are still talking on 2G feature phones. Digitisation will be impossible if what is in the hands of people is analog,” Paulson said, adding that 4G feature phones could boost digital connectivity in the country.
