DoT to set up panel to examine 5G applications: Sundararajan

The Department of Telecom is in the process of setting up a panel which will decide on areas where 5G technology can be used, a top official said Friday.

The department has received proposals for using 5G technology in telemedicine and remote surgeries, drones for security surveillance and monitoring of air and water pollution, among others, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told PTI in an interview.

"Companies have come up with preliminary use cases. We are going to set up core group which will sit with them and look at what are the use cases that make sense to us," she said.

DoT approached Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Cisco and NEC for development of 5G applications and running trials on the suggestion of Stanford University Professor Emeritus Arogyaswami J Paulraj -- a member of the 5G panel that recently suggested spectrum roadmap for the technology, she said.

"We wrote to Ericsson, Nokia, Cisco, Samsung and NEC. Huawei has met me and they have said that they are interested. We said if you are interested then send us a proposal. We will see what their proposal is and we may go with them also," Sundararajan said.

She said Samsung, Nokia and Ericsson are in fairly advanced stages of developing applications for 5G technology.

"Use cases that companies have looked at for applications include drones for surveillance, mining, monitoring water and environmental pollution... as well as telemedicine and remote surgeries," Sundararajan said.

King's College under the Cambridge University has also approached DoT through state-run telecom technology development centre C-DoT.

Sundararajan also said all telecom operators are working on 5G but BSNL and Reliance Jio are at more advanced stage of development.

5G services will be rolled out in the country after government allocates spectrum to telecom operators.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended auction of about 8,644 MHz of telecom frequencies at an estimated base price of Rs 4.9 lakh crore.