Building 5G use cases needs strong public-private alliance: Nasscom study

Sectors such as healthcare, energy & utilities, manufacturing, and retail are expected to benefit from large-scale 5G adoption, which is expected to power up to 2 per cent of India's GDP by 2030

Effective collaboration between public and private players for creating a skilled workforce and cybersecurity infrastructure, reducing regulatory overlaps, and providing financial incentives, will be needed to ensure that the benefits of 5G are realised across sectors, industry body Nasscom said in a report released on Tuesday.

Sectors such as healthcare, energy & utilities, manufacturing, and retail are expected to benefit the most from large-scale 5G adoption, which is expected to power up to 2 per cent of India’s GDP by 2030, the report said. India currently has the second highest number of telecom users in the world, at 1.1 billion, of which 740 million are 4G customers.

The study by industry body Nasscom and management consulting firm Arthur D Little said 5G would bring a shift in offering rapid upgradation of customer experience. Ecosystem collaboration between public and private players will augment India-specific 5G use cases across industries. 5G is expected to create new value through hyper-connectivity and become a catalyst for digital transformation across industries.

The report suggests that the government should work on creating a skilled workforce through effective academic and industry collaboration, vocational training in rural areas, and providing financial incentives. It should also minimise regulatory overlaps with other ministries, the industry body adds.

Cybersecurity infrastructure and privacy protection mechanisms need to be enhanced to minimise cyber threats and attack vectors. Similarly, steps should be taken to address the power needs of 5G and ensure the adoption of Green 5G to enable sustainable 5G adoption, as per the report.

Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh said, “5G provides an opportunity for industries to augment the pace of digitization at the grassroots level and for consumers to gain with economies of scale. However, achieving this will require effective ecosystem collaboration between Telcos, OEMs, Infrastructure companies, and the Government to increase consumer adoption and market readiness to unlock large-scale benefits of 5G.”

Aided by increasing market penetration, a strengthening economy and sectoral reforms, 5G is expected to power up to 2 per cent of India’s GDP, amounting to $180 billion by 2030. The study says adequate infrastructure upgrading and fiberisation for 5G deployment, along with network densification need to be addressed to realise the full benefit of the technology across industries.

As industries look to 5G to meet the demands of a digitised world, the need for pro-investment policies and modernised regulatory regimes has never been greater. 5G adoption will depend on factors such as dedicated R&D investments to develop India-specific use cases, enterprise penetration, device affordability, and consumer adoption, according to the study.

“With over 500 million 5G users in India by 2030, 5G can be truly transformational for the economy. With public and private 5G networks enabling use cases across multiple sectors such as mobility, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, energy & utilities, 5G can have an impact of over USD 180 Billion on India’s economy in 2030,” said Barnik Chitran Maitra, Managing Partner, Arthur D. Little India, and South Asia.