Private 5G

INTRODUCTION

Digital Transformation in Telecommunications has made a fresh turn towards modernization. As the hoodoo of the pandemic refuses to fade into its twilight, mankind explores the exciting dawn of 5G. After all, 5G has already begun revolutionizing communications, accelerating the emergence of future data-centric technologies such as AI/ML, AR/VR, robotics, and real-time data analytics and has fueled innovation against unprecedented industry demands towards business strategy and monetization. No other industry is as primed for the ongoing 5G revolution as telecommunications.

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As all the frenzied brainstorming sessions are trying to explore and exploit the bazillions of benefits of 5G technology, Private 5G is steadily gaining momentum to recast the “smart” world and realize Industry 4.0 transformation. Enterprise IT departments are now pioneering the fight for excellence with increased automation, impressive features, and improved customer satisfaction. In fact, discussions reveal that this generation of mobile communications will have broader impact on enterprises than consumers.

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According to Verizon’s Head of 5G and Edge Innovation, Arvin Singh, private networks present us with the noble opportunity to take wireless to places where there may not be a public 5G network. In places where a public 5G network exists, private 5G can offer additional security, privacy, improved data sovereignty, the ability to offer application prioritization with quality of service and increased management and control. The private 5G solution will target all business sizes, small, mid-market, and enterprise.?

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If you want to build a more agile business by taking it to the digital age that can keep pace with shifting demands of speed, reliability, and latency, then private 5G network is your solution. If you want to accelerate your digital transformation by unlocking new opportunities with the Internet of Things that are robust, seamlessly scalable and provides a smooth upgrade path, then private 5G is the answer you are looking for. If you want to provide reliable connectivity for your people, machines, and sensors, and in parallel want to realize your digital ambitions and be prepared for whatever comes next, private 5G is the way for you to go.

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It is being said that the enterprise market will be the main revenue generator and the 10-year cash cow for mobile operators. Private 5G network promises to provide ubiquitous connectivity across campuses within large industrial sites. Its intrinsic security assures shielding of operations and data from cyber perils with a network that has built-in encryption and authentication capabilities.

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Private 5G will give the business authority of their network and allow IT leaders to consolidate their networking strategy across the enterprise. With Network Slicing solutions in place, enterprises can now divide their networks into virtual subnetworks and interconnect them. Each subnetwork can provide dedicated functions and services can be adapted to the needs of individual customers. With this, businesses will have better control on the class and quality of services required. Further reduction of latency will be possible with the gradual evolution of edge computing.

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CURRENT DEPLOYMENTS OF 5G PRIVATE WIRELESS

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With this introduction, let us now canvass how and where these benefits are being experimented and best utilized.

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Private 5G networks are well-suited for maritime ports because these logistics hubs need to connect equipment and people over distances that are typically greater than Wi-Fi can cover. The Port of Tyne is advancing its ambition to become a “world-class smart port’’ after partnering with BT to install a new 5G Private Network and other “cutting-edge” surveillance and smart technology. Port of Tyne CEO Mike Beeton said in a statement the port already has a wide range of use cases developed for implementation and testing on the new network. At launch the port expects to implement optical character recognition software that will leverage the 5G network to optimize container tracking. In addition, members of Beeton’s team want to test driverless vehicles and a clean energy testbed that can use 5G to support energy management algorithms and real-time simulation.?The arrival of 5G means the Port and its customers can take full advantage of advanced technology, including robotics and autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and IoT applications. 5G can also support driverless trucks, and ports are locations in which automated guided vehicles (AGVs) will be useful and practical. Goods are transported over predictable, repeatable routes with relatively low levels of interfering traffic.

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Lufthansa Industry Solutions, the IT consulting and system integration arm of the German conglomerate Lufthansa Group, worked with Nokia to deploy a 5G standalone (SA) private network in an airline hangar. The company is using that network to conduct virtual inspections of airplane engines. In the past they used Wi-Fi for connectivity inside the airplane hangar, but the connection was not reliable because hangars tend to have a lot of machinery and metal that can disrupt the signal. Lufthansa activated its standalone private network in January 2020, and it was the first SA network outside of Asia. Lufthansa used a spectrum license it acquired from the German government. In 2019 Germany allocated 100 MHz in the 3.7 – 3.8 GHz band for 5G local spectrum licenses that are intended for private wireless networks. When Lufthansa first started building its private network with Vodafone in 2019 the 5G servers and other network equipment was like what mobile operators were using, it was big and intended to connect millions of devices.

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Turkcell and Ericsson have successfully performed a 5G industrial use case demonstration of Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) Safe Crossing in a real warehouse environment. The demonstration was achieved over Turkcell’s 5G Private Network, provided by Ericsson and was deployed in close collaboration with Ericsson’s Industry 4.0 partner, local manufacturer of autonomous mobile robot Milvus Robotics. With the successful demonstration of this use case, Turkcell will start providing reliable, fast, and secure 5G ready private connectivity to its enterprise customers in the logistics sector as well as other vertical industries.

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Intel, Federated Wireless and Blue White Robotics deployed a private wireless network at a California winery, claiming the technology will help farmers address labor shortages by making tractors autonomous.?The self-driving tractors can spray, disc, and dust the crops with a single remote operator controlling an entire fleet. Data from the connected machines is processed using Intel’s Smart Edge software running on an edge server with a six-core Xeon D-1528 processor. These servers enable each tractor to analyze and transmit detailed data about its operations and the vineyard’s conditions.

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Nokia has announced?it is expanding its private wireless capabilities?and?portfolio of Nokia Industrial?user equipment.?The?addition?of?new?wearable devices and?digital twinning?will?give?manufacturers, mining, public safety?agencies?and?other organizations,?more?ways to?securely?connect people and machines,?unlock?the value of?their?data?and support even more demanding use cases. A range of accessories from new partner Savox, hand-held remote speaker microphones (RSMs), headsets with noise cancellation and helmet compatible headsets, will provide more ways for workers to connect, while increasing situational awareness to enhance their safety. First responders, mining engineers and others working in harsh environments will be able to communicate without having to remove protective equipment and hear in noisy locations. All devices are designed, manufactured, and certified to meet regulatory requirements. In addition to a wearable camera with or without push-to-talk functionality, we are also launching a Nokia Industrial 5G video camera supporting excellent low light performance and image quality. The video camera can be wirelessly connected to your private wireless 5G network and enables enterprise customers to benefit from real-time video analysis, face recognition, object detection (for surveillance); defect detection (for industrial, and obstacles), road sign detection and drive record (for automotive). New Nokia Network Digital Twin for private wireless enables the organization to view its network’s real time and historical performance as measured from the Nokia Industrial devices deployed on premise, allowing the enterprise to ensure that the network SLAs are maintained. It also recommends actions to take in case of sub-optimal network performance. This will enhance planning capabilities as future scenarios can be tested without impacting the current environment. Such capability will be particularly important for innovative new industrial use cases that private wireless 5G SA networks’ ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), time sensitive networking (TSN) capabilities will enable. This will allow enterprises to flexibly re-configure their operational space to meet their business needs.

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Ericsson Private 5G offers secure and simple 4G LTE and 5G Standalone (SA) connectivity primarily targeting manufacturing, mining and process industry, offshore and power utilities, as well as ports and airports, amongst other businesses. It optimizes and simplifies business operations with cloud-based network management, keeps sensitive data on-premises, has zero downtime upgrades, and guarantees high performance through Service-Level Agreements (SLAs). Use cases include tracking assets and real-time automation to improve productivity in warehouses with digital twins that can help to optimize manufacturing operations. Efficient quality inspections can also be performed via augmented reality or smart surveillance drones to increase worker safety, particularly in potentially hazardous environments such as ports and mines. Ericsson already has a significant track record of operational 4G and 5G private network deployments with customers worldwide. Ericsson Private 5G builds on the success of that solution portfolio and deployment insights, as well as insights from projects such as 5G-Industry Campus Europe.

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Samsung’s network solutions are supporting Naver’s private 5G commercial service to power cloud-based autonomous mobile robots, which will be used to provide services including coffee delivery to employees throughout the building. Naver Cloud operates the global IT infrastructure and enterprise solution services for Naver and its subsidiaries while providing its public cloud services, Naver Cloud Platform, to various companies and organizations in a range of industries. Naver’s autonomous mobile robot services leverage both Naver and Samsung technologies to introduce a private 5G use case. Serving as assistants for employees, the robots provide services such as delivering packages, coffee, and lunch boxes to employees throughout the building. There are 40 robots moving around three floors within the 1784 headquarters, with plans to expand to hundreds of robots traveling around the entire 36-floor building this year. The commercial private 5G solutions powering Naver’s application include Samsung’s Compact Core and 5G radios supporting 4.7 GHz and 28 GHz spectrum, which are dedicated for private 5G networks in Korea. The technology they’re using includes New Radio-Dual Connectivity (NR-DC), allowing devices or end users to connect to mid-band and millimeter wave technology simultaneously.

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Car maker Skoda plans to automate more of its manufacturing processes using a new private 5G standalone (SA) network operated by Vodafone Czech Republic deployed at a factory in Skoda’s hometown of Mladá Boleslav. The network uses kit supplied by Nokia, and will be managed by Skoda’s own IT department, with input from both Vodafone and Nokia. According to a Skoda representative, “We have requirements from individual departments for reliable wireless communication with high availability. The mobile 5G private network will help us, for example, in automating car parking. We will move the manufactured cars to the parking lot without the intervention of the driver only with the help of automatically controlled trucks. We also plan to use the mobile private network for the automatic upload of software and settings for the car produced.”

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Manufacturers may look to private 5G to increase efficiencies and ultimately cut costs, and healthcare and educational facilities may invest in private wireless to deliver better user experiences.?Profitable businesses may prefer the operating expense of a network-as-a-service over a big upfront investment, but it is believed that cities and school districts may prefer a capital investment because they can pay for it with one-time government funding. Some enterprises are also reluctant to allow access to their IT networks. In an industrial manufacturing plant, they don’t want a telco person touching their enterprise network. They want a trusted third-party integrator that they have a longstanding relationship with.

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Oil and gas facilities are likely to be another early adopter of private 5G networks because many of their facilities are located outside the range of commercial networks. For example, Accenture has been working with AT&T to deploy a private LTE network, upgradeable to 5G, at a refinery for Phillips 66. There are very few types of facilities that have higher device population densities than in healthcare. Security is also at a premium by harvesting generated data and combining it with AI, the potential to improve healthcare is limitless. Trends and anomalies that would otherwise go unnoticed could lead to improvements in patient safety and outcomes. Another important application for private 5G is in logistics, specifically for tracking, monitoring, and sorting packages and shipments integrated with inventory systems.

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CITIZENS BROADBAND RADIO SERVICE (CBRS)

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Several countries including the U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan, and South Korea allocate spectrum for private networking. Germany has reserved 100MHz in the 3.7 – 3.8 GHz band for private companies and opened the 26 GHz band last year. Until mid-March 2022, the German regulator BNetza has awarded 201 spectrum?licenses for private 5G networks in 3.7 – 3.8 GHz band and 10 in the 26 GHz band. Spain has approved the plan to set aside 20 MHz in 2300 – 2400 MHz range for enterprise private networks. Similarly, there are several other markets that have set aside spectrum for private licensing.

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Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) refers to 150 MHz of spectrum in the 3550 – 3700 MHz range that the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has designated for sharing among three tiers of users: incumbent users, priority access license (PAL) users and general authorized access (GAA) users. The incumbent tier is reserved for grandfathered users that had traditionally used the 3550 – 3700 MHz range. This group mainly includes the Navy as well as commercial fixed satellite stations. The CBRS band was designed taking into consideration the geographical usage of the band as well as predictable data that the incumbents had provided over time to limit interference for the incumbents.

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Wireless technology can enable robotics and factory automation in the 3550 – 3700 MHz bands that are well-suited for campus-wide connectivity and because many factories are isolated enough to have the spectrum to themselves. The benefit of this band is that if you want an isolated network with your own SIMS and your own validation that only your own people can communicate with, it gives you the opportunity to do that. Operators that serve rural areas, CBRS offers an opportunity both for FWA networks and private wireless networks. Building fiber in the wilderness does not meet a return-on-investment, but a CBRS network does.?

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Passengers who are just coming off a plane, for example, are suddenly jumping on the airport’s Wi-Fi and that’s part of the reason the airport or airline wants their own CBRS network. Luggage gets delayed because the Wi-Fi network is getting bogged down. With a private network, the management of the luggage can move to the private network, giving the airport more control. increased efficiencies in the baggage handling system can save 10 minutes per flight.

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But one of the more exciting prospects of CBRS is the opportunity for enterprises to get their hands on spectrum for the first time in the U.S. Previously, if an enterprise wanted to build a private wireless network, it had to work with a carrier to get access to spectrum. But with CBRS, enterprises can potentially own some spectrum for themselves. Enterprises are also looking to bid on CBRS so that they can build private wireless networks for their venues, office campuses or manufacturing and industrial environments. The “connectivity-as-a-service” has been launched recently to give enterprise customers a turnkey CBRS solution that will not require them to build and manage their own networks.?

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GOOGLE CLOUD’S PRIVATE 5G

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Google’s new offering in the United States is built upon Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) Edge. The cloud giant has partnered with Betacom, which?will deploy its fully managed 5G-as-a-Service on GDC Edge, giving enterprises access to private 5G networks to support intelligent manufacturing applications. Google Cloud will use Boingo?Wireless to deploy its fully managed, end-to-end private cellular networks for enterprise customers using GDC Edge at major airports, stadiums, hospitals, manufacturing facilities and U.S. military bases. It’s also working with Celona’s 5G LAN technology to automate rollouts of private cellular networks that are tightly integrated with existing security and quality-of-service policies. For communications infrastructure, including wireless infrastructure and fiber networks, Google Cloud is partnering with Crown Castle. And it’s working with?Kajeet, which will deploy its 5G solution on GDC Edge with a mission to connect students and communities with high-speed wireless internet to eliminate the digital divide.

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Many enterprises have been experimenting with private networks but operating and scaling them presents numerous challenges. With this new portfolio and new key partnerships, customers will be able to rapidly adopt turnkey, private network solutions with the flexibility to deploy management, control, and user plane functions both in the cloud and at the edge. GDC Edge has access to Google Cloud services and is backed by Google’s security best practices. By building on a mature, cloud-native management experience, powered by Anthos, enterprises will benefit from a consistent developer and operational model across their entire IT estate. In addition, Distributed Cloud Edge offers the flexibility to scale to other use cases that need low latency and Quality of Service (QoS) for critical applications.

Every enterprise has unique topography, latency and QoS requirements for their applications. Google Distributed Cloud Edge provides a centralized control and management plane for secure networks, scaling from one to thousands of locations. With GDC Edge, customers will be able to run private networks including virtualized RAN for connectivity and edge applications in a single solution. Google’s partnerships with Communications Service Providers (CSPs) will further enable enterprises with roaming connectivity while retaining control of their private environments.

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PRIVATE WIRELESS IN APAC

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The Asia Pacific region dominated the private wireless market in 2021, underpinned by China’s ambitious industrial 5G goals. Helping to explain this increased focus on private 5G in China are several key national directives. First, the Made in China 2025 Initiative, which pushes for greater usage of industrial robotics and automation in 10 key strategic sectors. Second, the Internet Plus Plan, an initiative to transform, modernize, and equip traditional industries with more advanced technologies. Finally Set Sail Action Plan for 5G Applications, which targets 3,000 private industrial networks and a 35% 5G penetration rate in large industrial enterprises by 2023.

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China is racing ahead in building the infrastructure of 5G networks, but it is inside factories, coal mines, shipyards, and warehouses where the technology is really taking off. The country is widely seen as being out front in the deployment of localized, high-powered 5G networks in sprawling industrial sites, which aim to use the technology to help automate labor-intensive or dangerous industrial processes, and hopefully boost productivity. These sites include 5G coal mines with remote-operated drilling machinery, so-called smart factories that automate production and quality control, and seaports with internet-connected cameras that process and tally freight containers. These 5G private networks are different from the consumer-oriented networks that blanket towns and cities, in that they are dedicated to specific enterprise sites with tailor-made hardware and software. Isolated from public networks, they can be adjusted to specific requirements and handle more complex jobs and processes.

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China leads the world in 5G deployment in general. As of the end of last year, the country had installed more than 1.4 million 5G base stations, accounting for 60% of the world’s total, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the government agency that oversees China’s tech sector.

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In South Korea, Nokia recently announced that it has launched?a?Private?5G?Open?Lab,?as part of its existing Advanced Technology Center?at?its?Seoul?offices?to showcase its?technology?and?encourage?the development of?5G private wireless networks?in Korea. Nokia's?Private?5G?Open?Lab will support Korean enterprises, communications service providers (CSPs) and partners?in leveraging 5G private wireless networks to acquire new capabilities and operational efficiencies. The?lab?will also?offer?training to partners and demonstrations?for customers. Nokia will?also?partner with local?companies?developing solutions and services for?5G?private?wireless?networks.?The lab is equipped with Nokia's 5G private wireless network solution, including its radio, core, and service platform, powered by Nokia’s latest AirScale portfolio, Modular Private Wireless and FastMile 5G Gateways. Nokia Digital Automation Cloud and MX Industrial Edge will also be added and cross-connected with the existing equipment by the third quarter of the year.?

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DRAWBACKS OF PRIVATE WIRELESS

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Everything may not be positive about Private 5G or more generally Private Networks. Not all municipal private networks have delivered for cities in the United States. Several large municipalities have invested in large private networks that now sit unused, with just a handful of end user devices connected. There’s tremendous interest in private wireless, but there is still a level of complexity, a hurdle that must be overcome by some “novice” organizations. Many of them have been experimenting with private networks but operating and scaling them presents numerous challenges.?Educational institutions in districts and cities are more likely to struggle with end user device support because they don’t have help desks to support callers and help them troubleshoot. Power limitations for spectrums are yet another concern for service providers.

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In addition to cellular networks being unfamiliar territory for many businesses, many deployments require the involvement of several vendors. If these providers aren’t good partners and don’t have a single project manager, the customer can end up herding cats and wasting time.

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CONTROVERSIES AROUND 5G PRIVATE WIRELESS – THE INDIA STORY

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There is a massive debate ongoing in India on whether Private 5G Spectrum or Captive Non-Public Networks (CNPN) should be leased directly to the enterprises. Private LTE was not available to the enterprises and the rich use cases could not be leveraged; a question Telcos are answerable since LTE has been around for a decade; but Private 5G is a different anecdote altogether. Whereas the Telcos argue that spectrum should be entirely under their control, various business powerhouses conflict that opinion.

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Recently, with a month left from the 5G auctions, regulation has been passed, much to the distress of the Indian Telcos approving Private 5G to the business houses directly. This effectively means non-licensed companies may be able to directly acquire 5G spectrum from the government without having to buy it in an auction. But since the government has also said that the Department of Telecommunications will seek regulatory views from TRAI in terms of such direct assignments, these direct airwave allotments to independent enterprises may take more time. Whereas the implication of this regulation remains to be seen, the technology giants of India have hailed this directive as a forward-looking decision.

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The enterprises are yearning for service reliability, control, and security. They want to deliver a rock-solid platform on which to run their business operations, empower employees?and partners, and delight customers. With direct access to 5G airwaves reliance on telcos will attenuate to build and manage their captive networks. They have been citing the developed nations as example to influence the regulators. Moreover, this would imply an additional source of revenue for the government through license fees and administrative fees paid for the spectrum. Finally, the fact that the Indian Telcos have not done exceedingly well on Private LTE space also did not go well with the big businesses.

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The Telcos on the other hand argue that Enterprises are expected to be their main cash generator estimated to generate around 40% of overall 5G revenue in India. Telcos’ businesses depend on economies of scale. Taking away chunks of crucial spectrum to dedicate them to verticals runs a serious risk of fragmenting available spectrum, thereby reducing their carrying capacity and threatening wider success of 5G and poses threat to national security. That will lead to carriers losing out to tech players in grabbing lucrative smart factory and captive 5G network execution contracts. Furthermore, the spectrum set-aside exclusively for enterprises in core mobile bands risks being underused and adversely impacting spectrum availability and affordability for public 5G services.

With the resolution going against their wishes, the Telcos now must refocus their planned 5G enterprise business to focus on medium-sized corporates?for new revenue streams with expected competition from large corporates and tech?majors who could enter the fray for captive private networks using the next gen technology.

According to a senior executive of one of the three big Telcos, "Basically, the government has paved the way for administrative allocation of 5G?spectrum to large tech companies who can easily meet the Rs 100 crore net-worth criteria, which is extremely unfair as it expects telcos, on the contrary, to buy these coveted airwaves by splurging billions in the upcoming auction. This proposal tantamount to cross-subsidizing large tech corporates, as?they will get top-grade spectrum by paying a nominal processing fee, while telcos will have to bid for expensive spectrum and pass on the higher costs on the consumer, that will ultimately make 5G unaffordable for the masses".

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If we analyze this comment carefully, and some of the other earlier statements from Indian Telco executives, on one side they have the massive 5G license expenses to bear and on the other a primary source of revenue from the big enterprises must be compromised. That leaves them with the crucial SME sector (some large enterprises as well), that would be interested in 5G Private networks offered by the Telcos. On this front, there would be severe competition and the offers must be extremely competitive. So, how will the mammoth 5G license costs be recovered? From the general population? So, if the implications of leasing 5G Private networks to enterprises are correctly understood, 5G services are unlikely to be extremely affordable in India and this may impede acceleration of 5G services and penetration in the country.

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Traditionally, regulations have not been the most considerate towards Telcos, worldwide. On one hand they are left to deal with the Brobdingnagian customer expectations, while on the other hand their profits are Lilliputian in comparison to the OTT players that use the foundation they possess and maintain. The Indian Telco industry is a triopoly of private players. Sometime, this can be three times as bad as an incumbent government-operated monopoly. Does DoT and TRAI realize this bitter truth? What is the fallback option? Knock!! Knock!! Does anyone care?

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REFERENCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS