Podcast | Deep dive: 5G technology in India

5G, the next big milestone in telecom technology, is just around the corner. Yep, even in India. 5G has been in trials for a while now and has been covered pretty widely. I recall a tiff between two companies that showed off a 5G-enabled bus and a 5G-enabled self-driven car, respectively, at the South Korea winter Olympics in February of this year.

Wait, why are we talking about 5G? We can barely get a decent 4G connection in our cities and get just about passable 3G coverage outside the cities. We know our phones show 4G when we’re traveling in trains but the real speeds are clearly less than actual 4G. And let’s not even dwell on the connectivity inside our homes.

Some days, we are lucky to not spot the dreaded ‘E’ next to the antenna symbol. Well, in spite of all this, believe it or not, the central government is keen on 5G. As Investopedia noted in an article on 5G, “Countries that want to stay competitive in the global economy are adopting 5G technology... technology affects nearly all aspects of life, (and) countries need to stay current with technological developments to improve the lives of their citizens and continue evolving...”

The countries most ready to adopt 5G are, of course, the major industralised economies like Japan, the US, Taiwan, South Korea, Sweden, and, you better believe it, China and Turkey.

That said, preparations for the next-generation wireless technology have already begun in India. Tech company Ericsson launched India’s first 5G innovation and hub centre at IIT Delhi this month. Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said, "India cannot afford to miss the 5G bus. It is of strategic importance to us.”

The centre is focused on developing 5G technology for the telecom industry, academics, and is in the process of identifying other potential use cases in sectors like health and disaster management which have emerged as frontrunners for 5G adoption.

A report by the company Ericsson claims 5G-enabled digitisation revenue potential in India will hit $27.3 billion by 2026. Borje Ekholm, president and CEO of Ericsson, says India is important not just because of the market size, but also because of the demand for technology. He also claims India will be the market that leads into 5G.

According to Ekholm, “With 5G, cost can come down about a factor of 10 per GB, and operators need to move there. The demand for 5G will be the highest actually in India. 5G network will give enhanced mobile broadband and will lead to new applications like augmented and virtual reality, usage of drones in agriculture, and massive deployment of IoT in cities.” The company even claims Indian operators can generate additional revenue of $13 billion if they venture beyond being mere connectivity and infrastructure providers to service enablers and service creators. The largest opportunities will likely be seen, according to Ericsson, in manufacturing, energy and utilities, public safety and health.

The CEO of Ericsson makes a good point. While we, the users, think of 4G as mobile phone-centric data technology, 5G thrown open new doors. This has to do with the speeds involved, which many claim could replace fibre optic broadband lines.

Yes, our home fibre optic lines. Because we could have those speeds up in the air around us, available to anyone with a 5G capable devices like tablets, laptops etc. 5G connectivity will likely be used in emerging technologies like mixed reality, developing smart cities, smart agriculture and most importantly Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Okay, before we proceed, let us consider the speeds we’re talking about. Qualcomm recently said its latest mobile modem promises “fibre-like” speeds of up to 2Gbps. That’s twice the speed available from most home fibre optic connections in India. And it could be coming to flagship phones late this year and 2019. As in, if we get a Samsung Galaxy S10 next year, it could well have that Qualcomm modem inside it. No, we haven’t been paid to promote it. Qualcomm announced that 19 manufacturers have signed up for the 5G modem named X50. Also, Apple has dropped hints that the iPhone could be 5G-enabled in 2019.

The FCC, i.e. the United States Federal Communications Commission’s Spectrum Frontiers Order has laid the groundwork for the use of 5G technology in that country by the year 2020. In July 2016, the FCC began creating rules for 5G technology, making the US the first country to open high-band spectrum for the technology. Investopedia says 5G technology offers at least one gigabit per second in terms of connection speeds, shorter delays than 4G technology, and millimetre wave (mmW) bands for supporting applications requiring a large capacity. American mobile network companies AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are already developing and testing 5G components.

One major thing 5G has going for it, a striking feature even, is the promise of improved connectivity. Investopedia claims 5G has unbreakable connectivity.  5G networks are expected to have latencies of just one millisecond. This factor is one of the most significant because of its implications for the possibilities of use.

A flawless interconnected system makes new devices and concepts possible in the future. It will likely have enough capacity to perform every function you want it to, wherever you are, without a drop in speed or connection, no matter how many people are connected at the same time. So, potentially, in a crowded area, where we usually see 3G or 4G speeds tank like cast iron in the water, 5G could just provide steady connectivity.

This is because 5G will run on a new "high-spectrum band", which uses higher frequency signals than 4G. While 4G operates in the 900MHz band, 5G will operate in higher frequencies going all the way up to 28GHz. The new band will be much less congested than at present, which will be vital for use.

So, what’s the catch? The tradeoff is in the distance the signal travels. Higher spectrum means signals won't be able to travel as far. The use of multiple small cells is necessary because the millimetre wave spectrum -- the band of spectrum between 30 GHz and 300 GHz that 5G relies on to generate high speeds — can only travel over short distances and is subject to interference from weather and physical obstacles, like buildings.

That’s just an inescapable limitation of microwaves. So there will have to be more access points positioned closer together. To explain that in terms of mobile towers, right now, 4G requires mobile towers every 1 to 5 kilometres. 5G will require, according to some sources, a tower every 250 metres. So we’re looking at a lot more mobile towers strewn across our buildings.

There has been some noise that 5G signals can affect our health - there are reports that 5G signals are absorbed in human sweat glands. A report titled Potential Risks to Human Health Originating from Future Sub-MM Communication Systems presented at the Hebrew University Medical School in January 2017, claimed they had “demonstrated that the coiled portion of the sweat duct in upper skin layer is regarded as a helical antenna in the sub-THz band.”

The researchers claimed they showed that the reflectance of the human skin in the sub-THz region depends on the intensity of perspiration, i.e. sweat duct's conductivity, and correlates with levels of human stress (physical, mental and emotional). They further say, “we detected circular dichroism in the reflectance from the skin, a signature of the axial mode of a helical antenna.” 

Striking a note of caution, but trying to not sound alarmist, the report notes that “the full ramifications of what these findings represent in the human condition are still unclear.”

A strong warning comes from  Dr Joel Moskowitz, a public health professor at the University of California. He says, "The deployment of 5G….constitutes a massive experiment on the health of all species. Since skin contains capillaries and nerve endings, MMW bio-effects may be transmitted through molecular mechanisms by the skin or through the nervous system. 5G will use high-band frequencies, or millimetre waves, that may affect the eyes, the testes, the skin, the peripheral nervous system, and sweat glands."

Alright, now that we’ve addressed the de rigueur dangers of new tech, let’s look at 3 things you need to know about 5G.

First, Internet of Things. This describes a network of objects that have the capacity to assemble and share information electronically. This includes a range of smart devices that access the Internet. 5G is a faster avenue for such devices to connect to the Internet. By the year 2020, it is predicted that each person in the UK will own and use 27 internet connected devices. There will be 50 billion connected devices worldwide.

These can range from smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, to fridges, cars, augmented reality specs and even smart clothes. Some of these will require significant data to be shifted back and forth, while others might just need tiny packets of information sent and received. The 5G system itself will understand and recognise this and allocate bandwidth respectively, thereby not put unnecessary strain on individual connection points.

Two, increased bandwidth. Analysts claim 5G will address the need for connection capacity brought about by a host of new smart devices. 5G is expected to have a bandwidth between 100 and 1,000 times greater than the current 4G network.

Third, 5G’s speed. The speed of 5G networks will be faster than any technology the world has seen to date. Samsung's trials of this tech in 2014 set a speed record with mobile technology, transmitting at a blazing 8 gigabytes per second.

The consensus is that 5G will ultimately be able to transmit 10 or more gigabytes per second in its early days of adoption, and transfer rates could reach nearly 1,000 gigabytes per second in the future. Such estimates seem to be in the realm of the fantastic, but we were never prepared for 4g, were we? If someone had told us 5 years ago that so many of us would abandon regular TV for Netflix and streaming services, or that we would have no need for torrents, we’d have laughed. And yet, here we are.

At present, 4G’s latency is between 40ms and 60ms, which is low-latency but not enough to provide real-time response. Multiplayer gaming, for example, requires a lower latency than that to ensure that when you hit a button, the remote server responds instantly. 5G’s prospective ultra-low-latency could range between 1ms and 10ms. Pocket-lint gives a good example of such latency.

This could allow a spectator in a football stadium to watch a live stream of an alternative camera angle of the action that matches what is going on the pitch ahead with no perceivable delay. Real-time video, with no buffering. It is estimated by some providers that by 2030, 76 percent of data traffic will be used for streaming video.

And a majority of that will be 4K Ultra HD or even 8K resolutions. Now, 4g can, theoretically, suffice for that. A 14Mbps connection should be able to cope with streaming 4K video, 18Mbps for 8K . But if everyone does it at the same time, like statistics suggest, the network would have serious difficulty keeping up with demand.

5G spectrum auction in India is expected to take place in 2019. Also, India’s telecom giant Reliance Jio wants to get in on some IoT action. Mukesh Ambani’s telecom disruptor has acquired Nasdaq-listed telecom solutions provider Radisys Corp for around $75 million. If RIL’s recent AGM was any indication, Reliance Jio wants to be the torch-bearer for next-gen services in the Indian market.

Some analysts say telecom operators providing IoT services will give rise to a vast range of new clients covering B2B and B2C domains. IoT has the potential to transform smart appliances, vehicle tracking, smart metering, and security & surveillance. Jio is also looking to acquire spectrum, fibre, towers and switching nodes from Reliance Communications for over Rs17,000 crore.

Interestingly, while the whole world is waiting for 5g, the Indian government is also looking at keeping 2G alive! Last month, the Department of Telecom invited bids to install 214 telecom towers in uncovered villages and along national highways in Andaman and Nicobar. The document says, "USPs may deploy equipment to support enhanced capabilities and advanced services. However, support for 2G (voice) and 4G (data) is mandatory."

This seems anachronistic when most countries are abandoning 2g. For instance, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore no longer support 2G. The US is phasing out 2G in 2020. Taiwan, always one step ahead, will not support even 3G after 2018!

But the reason for India’s 2g expansion is easy to understand - feature phones. There are an estimated 500 million feature phones, or non-smartphones, in India. These users are gradually shifting to smartphones, as handset prices fall rapidly, after which they will be able to access 4g and 5g. Reliance Jio, which has a nationwide 4G network, has called the decision "retrograde" and "unfair". The company claims this project will give an opportunity to legacy operators to deploy their old equipment even as they deploy 4G network in other telecom circles.

So, by 2020, we could potentially have a situation where India supports everything from 2g to 5g. Talk about a spectrum!

In any case, Deccan Chronicle reported in June that Jio had upgraded its 4G IP network and started a pre-5G internet service to be a step ahead of its domestic rivals and possibly unleash a 4G-like disruption in the 5G market. The government has asked the telecom regulator for recommendations on the reserve price of airwaves in various bands — including 3,300-3,400 Mhz and 3,500-3,600 Mhz — that are being considered for 5G services.

The report adds that though the India launch of 5G services is not expected before 2020 as per government assessment, it is quite possible that telcos could go for a soft launch of this high-speed data service before that if they complete trial runs on their networks.

International Business Times reported last month that Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are already conducting 5G trials in India. Smartphone makers, too are preparing for the new bandwidth. Samsung, Nokia, Google, Xiaomi, LG, Huawei and OnePlus are planning to launch 5G compatible smartphones soon.

The release of this new, faster system is expected to be transformative in many ways, but one of the most promising is the effect 5G is likely to have on transportation.

Remote traffic management, real-time navigation, automatic braking systems, and preemptive collision detection and prevention are just a few of the possibilities that the implementation of this technology is capable of making a reality. The impact that such advances will have on personal and commercial transportation could be truly revolutionary.

The potential of 5G, is best summed up by Robert J. Topol, Intel's general manager for 5G business and technology. He says, "5G will be the post-smartphone era. Phones are the first place to launch because [they're] such an anchor in our lives from a connectivity standpoint."