5G The Next Revolutionary Technology

Left to Right: Rajan Mathews, Director General, COAI, Mahendra Nahata, Director, RJio, Gopal Vittal, CEO, Bharti Airtel, Balesh Sharma, CEO, Vodafone Idea Limited, Aruna Sundararajan, Chairperson, DCC and Secretary (T), DoT, Ministry of Communications, GOI, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, GOI, Anshu Prakash, Additional Secretary (T), DoT, Ministry of Communications, GOI, Srinivasan Sundarajan, Sr. Vice President, Samsung, Nitin Bansal, MD, Ericsson India, Marshal Correia, CEO, Red Hat India, P Ramakrishna, CEO, India Mobile Congress.

With the theme ‘Imagine: a new CONNECTED world; Intelligent. Immersive. Inventive’, Hon’ble Minister of Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Government of India, Ravi Shankar Prasad has announced the third edition of the India Mobile Congress 2019 (IMC 2019), scheduled for 14-16th October, 2019 at Aerocity in New Delhi.

Aruna Sundararajan, Chairperson, DCC and Secretary (T), DoT, Ministry of Communications, Government of India and Anshu Prakash, Additional Secretary (T), DoT, Ministry of Communications, Government of India also graced the occasion as guest of honour.

The prestigious event, jointly organized by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and COAI, will see over 40 participating countries, more than 300 exhibitors and over 250 speakers this year. Considered the biggest tech event in Asia, IMC 2019, will carry forward its legacy of being the event to display, discuss, unveil, imbibe, educate and recognize the importance of the global and Indian telecommunications, mobile, internet connectivity and digital services sector to the world.

IMC 2019, highlights the inclusive technological aspirations, widened applications, stronger bonds between people, greater symbiosis between technology and regulatory trends, intelligent technology and the future tech trends. The theme is further sub-divided into 9 sub-themes: augmented analytics, autonomous things, future logistics, immersive world, intelligent edge, inventive unicorns, mHealth, privacy and ethics and smart spaces. It is expected that the event will lead to cementing India’s position as a leading center for connectivity, innovation, policy development and commercial opportunities.

Rajan Mathews, Director General, COAI, said, “India Mobile Congress has established itself as the biggest technology event in South Asia and the biggest networking event in India in the digital technology space. We are sure that all stakeholders will look forward to this platform for launches and releases of new technologies. Officials and senior decision makers from both the Government as well as the industry will be present and tech companies will be displaying the best that this ecosystem has to offer at this marquee event of the country.”

Ravi Shankar Prasad,
Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Government of India

“I want you to understand the enormity of challenge and the comprehensive opportunity a phone offers to transform India. New technology must come, but what is the special focus India offers to the developing world is something which needs to be properly conveyed.

I do not want 5G simply to be adopted, I want innovation and creation of patent in 5G and I want Indian TSP. My vision is very simple and my ambition is much focused. Can we have some India related patents developed in the 5G application?

I wish to thank my DoT team that they have already created the test bed for 5G. We want to enlarge it further so with the involvement of COAI, private sector, TSPs and all the IITs are able to develop some good innovative 5G products not only for mobile but also for healthcare, education, content development and a whole range of other activities that are good for society. This 5G along with Artificial Intelligence, IoT and new technologies must blend with each other so that they all are working in an ecosystem where they are working together to ultimately stunt the next product and then the next product is transformation.”

Aruna Sundararajan, Chairperson, DCC and Secretary (T), DoT,
Ministry of Communications, Government of India

“We all know that Digital India, the bulwark, the backbone of it is indeed the telecom and the digital infrastructure ecosystem. So I think this event will showcase not only what we have achieved, but will also showcase to the world our readiness to partner with other countries, other players in order to take the benefits of the digital opportunities to millions of people in our neighboring countries as well.

We believe that as India gets ready for 5G, for all the new technologies that are coming in AI, Data Analytics, Blockchain, India is one of the most vibrant centers for new technologies and startups anywhere in the world and all of this will open up many more opportunities for everyone working in the digital space, whether it is M2M, IoT, the development of platforms, tools, services and so on.

As you all know, the government is working on an ambitious roadmap for 5G, the minister had discussions on the roadmap for 5G with the service providers, and we look forward to working with all of you in the ecosystem because in some way or the other, you will all be part of the new initiative and the new ecosystem that is emerging.”

Balesh Sharma, CEO, Vodafone Idea

“So India has got to be a $ 5 trillion economy, our Prime Minister’s wish. Are we serious about it? No doubt in my mind, because that $ 5 trillion, rides on a trillion coming in from a Digital economy. I don't think the remaining $ 4 trillion can happen without the enablement and digitalization.

If the $ 5 trillion dream is to come true, or a trillion from Digital dreams has to come true, we have to do a lot. It is not going to be enough. It's not just the vendor ecosystem or the telcos, it's not only the people working there or investors, it has to be a countrywide movement involving the whole nation. If that has to happen, we need to bring the power of what 5G is capable or what future digitalization can bring it to the common man. Let us have a lot of freshers, students, academia joining hands, looking at what we are doing, the capability of what we are going to bring in and do their bit in that.”

Marshal Correia, CEO, Red Hat India

“I think there is lot going on in terms of 5G, AI, ML, connected cars and there is immense opportunity. Red Hat is a company which provides solutions to enterprise with open source. We work on the upstream with the community, which is millions of developers and downstream with clients and trying to connect both with our own development, mission critical platforms. In India, we are working very deeply with government, many verticals and communication service providers.

I think, agility, speed to market, efficiency and innovation are very critical. With our open connect platform, we can bring it all together and that is why we are very excited. We can really add value to all the providers.”

Nitin Bansal, MD, Ericsson India 

“We see active discussion is taking place on what will 5G do. So we have been part of all the four continents where 5G has been launched, more than three fourths of the networks are supplied by Ericsson.  What we see is that enhanced mobile broadband and fixed wireless access are the key enablers for 5G technology. Why do I say that? I say that because the way the data explosion is happening and the use of data that is expected going forward, there is the need to enable a cost efficient way to deliver cost regime at a reasonable price. In India we should be extremely proud that as part of our last mobility report that we brought up, Indian subscribers are consuming the highest data per subscriber per month per client per day. This is supposed to be and is expected to double in the next five years. Also looking at the total data we carried in the networks, we expect that this will quadruple by 2020. That is the total amount gigabytes that can be produced and consumed by the networks. We also expect LTE to remain as the dominant technology in the next five years. We expect about 80-83% of subscribers still using LTE, which means that it will exist together with 5G and it will maintain cost efficiency, especially in the metropolitan areas.”

Srinivasan Sundarajan, Sr. Vice President, Samsung

“The world and India are at the cusp of a major revolution partially because of the mobile technology, many other associated technology from Artificial Intelligence, use of 5G will have a major revolution not only on the telecommunication industry but many other industry verticals. They are expected to have a significant revolution over the next several years. The expectation is, this will provide main impetus for the economics of the world for many countries. This will move the economics of those countries several steps ahead from where they are today. During IMC last year, Samsung and many of the global and local companies showed some of the glimpses of what some of these technologies could be in the future. Since last IMC Samsung also already rolled out commercial networks across the globe, as well as actually participating in many trials across the globe right now, in many different types of use cases on 5G. This year's IMC will be an extremely exciting one many use cases not only that are been tried, but also many use cases that are unique or will be very advantageous for India. We expect to be showcased in this particular event.”