Lack of 5G monetisation, low RoI for telcos may delay 6G tech: COAI

Telecom operators have given orders for GPUs to better handle traffic on networks

Lack of monetisation for 5G services and low return on investment (RoI) for telecom operators globally may delay the advent of 6G technology, Director General of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) S P Kocchar said on Tuesday.

 

Discussed at length at the recently-concluded annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) summit in Barcelona, the issue has pointed out the need for communication Over the Top (OTT) to share the burden of investment in network infrastructure, Kocchar said at a press briefing.

 

“The positivity on getting return on investment is a little subdued now. Hence, telcos are increasing infrastructure with a little bit of caution. The rollout of networks for 5G has slowed down the world over. If 5G use cases don't come up in the next 2-3 years, the planned launch of 6G services may get delayed beyond 2030,” Kocchar said. The average RoI for Indian telecom players is 4 per cent.

 

Representing the three private telecom service providers (TSPs)- Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, COAI believes burgeoning data traffic generated by OTTs have necessitated large capital investments in maintaining telecom networks by telcos, and 4-5 large traffic generating (LTG) OTTs should pay a fair share charge (FSC).

 

“Delegations from many countries (at MWC) echoed the fact that 11 telecom operators have folded in recent past across the globe due to lack of profits and that these numbers would grow. OTTs are not sharing revenues globally (with telcos). The clamour is now growing across Europe, Americas and SouthEast Asia that OTTs should contribute,” Kocchar said.

 

According to the global mobile industry body GSM Association (GSMA), telcos have invested $109 billion or 85 per cent of the total investment in telecom networks, excluding end-user devices. Increasing expenditure has been chalked up for GPUs, AI and no immediate monetising use case of 5G.

 

GPUs soon

 

Kocchar said Indian telcos have placed purchase orders for graphics processing units (GPUs), and plan to soon incorporate them into the network infrastructure given the need to handle the massive traffic being generated on their networks. GPUs are increasingly used in telecom networks to handle computationally intensive tasks like real-time data analytics, network optimisation, and AI-driven services.

 

“AI is increasingly improving the efficiencies in telecom networks, and reducing unnecessary costs by making intelligent networks that shut down when there is no traffic, or degrade when their power requirement is low,” Kocchar said.