India’s 5G, IoT ambitions to ride on core networks, enabling ecosystem: DoT Secretary

India’s aspiration to take a leading role in 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) will ride on its ability to build core networks for new-age technologies and an enabling industry ecosystem, DoT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan has said. Terming the next-generation technologies like IoT critical, Sundararajan said the governments endeavour is to provide an enabling policy for growth of the industry and not to impose a heavy regulatory framework. “I agree India has more at stake in IoT and 5G than any other country because we need to leapfrog to meet the aspirations of the young demography and democracy,” Sundararajan said addressing a summit on IoT organized by CII recently.

Technologies like IoT are set to change the way machines and humans communicate, she said adding it will usher new capabilities and genre of services both globally and domestically. “We need to have core network and communications ecosystem that will facilitate 5G and IoT. We also need to get the rest of the ecosystem ready for the paradigm change, ” the Department of Telecom (DoT) Secretary said.

Every sector including healthcare, agriculture, consumer retail, smart energy and transport will have to rethink their business models with the advent of these new technologies, she pointed out.

Outlining India’s ambitions to position itself as not just as a consumer but a leader in 5G and IoT, Sundararajan said telecom service providers have already started rolling out pilots for 5G. Communication networks, she said, are going to be the first pillar of Indias 5G play.

Indian companies as well as startups have already begun working on IoT applications in areas such as agriculture, healthcare, industrial automation, retail and others, she said urging players to come together as an ecosystem to push Indias 5G blueprint.

Sundararajan said the telecom department has taken a slew of measures in the areas of machine-to-machine communication including issuing draft M2M service provider registration guidelines in 2016, and finalising a roadmap for 13-digit M2M numbering scheme.

DoT will consult the industry to keep the framework in these areas open for innovation, she added.