NEW DELHI: India must invest up to $ 10 billion each year in data infrastructure to overcome digital division predominant in the country, according to the first Department of Telecommunications (DoT) Secretary JS Deepak.
“We must also realize that the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) of the Ministry of Telecommunications (DoT) is in itself insufficient to finance these costs. The creation of a Broadband Infrastructure Fund with a body of private, multilateral and government sources, including revenues from spectrum tenders, is a must, “Deepak said during a webinar” Building the Digital Economy: Opportunities for Growth and Partnership “organized by Broadband Forum in India (BIF).
USOF has strong cash reserves of Rs 55,000, which aims to improve telecommunications connectivity in rural and remote parts of the country. It also funds the ambitious BharatNet a project that aims to cover 3.61 varnish villages through gram panchayata (GP) or rural blocks.
It is worth noting that the digital economy is worth $ 29 trillion, which is about 30% of world GDP, and reports technology giants such as Apple,, Microsoftand Amazon as some of the important players.
“… in addition to investing in large and intelligent operations, the government must also simplify regulations to speed up the deployment of infrastructure,” Deepak added.
TK Paul – Member (Telecom), DoT stressed that in the age of digitalization, telecommunications companies are adopting new technologies such as virtualization, software-defined network / virtualization of network functions (SDN-NFV), Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of things (IoT), Blockchain, among others.
“They will probably play an important role in automating networks and introducing the long-awaited ones 5G technology, will lead to much faster internet speeds, various new applications and a huge number of calls between machines, “said Paul.
But for the 5G market to grow, the ecosystem needs more integrated devices, such as connected cars or connected ships, and doesn’t have to focus on consumers first, said Mike Short (CBE), the department’s first chief scientific adviser. international trade, the UK government, and added that the devices must be both cellular and satellite.
Policies for the allocation of cellular as well as satellite spectrum need to be coordinated, Short said, given that governments allocate cellular spectrum at the national level to satellite spectrum distributed globally.
“..Due to the limited capital available to mobile and satellite operators, we will see a new level of cooperation that addresses any disruption that may occur in the cellular and satellite spectrum,” he said.
The range of millimeter waves (mmWave) among other bands is a contentious issue between terrestrial and satellite operators.