Network outages

The Indian government has been actively promoting the use of digital technologies through various initiatives such as Digital India, Make in India, and Startup India. Today we have nearly 1.2 billion consumers latch onto telecom networks.

The increase in internet and smartphone penetration in India has played a major role in the growth of the digital ecosystem. The number of internet users in India is expected to reach 800 million by 2023 but still the continuous network outage remains the 'hue and cry' affairs in the country. Network outage no longer leads merely to dropped phone calls but – potentially – to the failure of critical enterprise services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed all telecom service providers to promptly inform them of any network outages and provide a detailed account of the root causes and subsequent corrective measures taken.

This increase in internet users has also led to an increase in the number of mobile wallet users in India, which is expected to reach 900 million by 2025 . Experts say, Machine learning is a promising technology that has the potential to prevent network outages in a 5G world. As 5G networks become more widespread, the use of machine learning to prevent outages is likely to become more common.

Network outages continue to be a problem in India, even though telecom companies have adopted 5G. There is a rapid growth of the amount of mobile data traffic in India, which is putting a strain on the network infrastructure.

As per a report, India has a shortage of spectrum, which is the radio waves that are used to transmit data. This shortage is limiting the capacity of the network and making it more susceptible to outages. Secondly, the quality of infrastructure in India is not as good as in some other countries. This is leading to outages due to factors such as power cuts and technical glitches.

5G is the fifth generation of cellular networks, where the speed of 5G peaks around 10 Gbps. The development of 5G technology has prompted much anticipation among the tech community and the masses.

There are several factors responsible for the outage. These major network outages in the country for a prolonged duration, especially in border and hilly areas, adversely affect the availability or quality of service in the affected areas. All it seems there is no immediate respite.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA