Not so long ago, India’s mobile executives might have expressed exasperation that mobile platforms were evolving so quickly. After all, until very recently, 3G seemed to be the next wave of network investment in India. That was, until Reliance Jio entered the market with a “nothing but 4G” platform that forced the other leading mobile operators to respond.
Now the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman R.S. Sharma says new technologies such as Internet of Things and 5G need a push. It is hard to argue with the need to plan for those developments, as they are inevitable.
But some might say what is needed is less “push” and more “pull,” meaning less effort by TRAI and other government bodies to shape new technology platforms, and more incentives for suppliers to do so, and for consumers to use new services. Free voice and data usage plans offered by Reliance Jio, for example, have raised objections, and free access to some apps (Internet Basics including Facebook) have been barred.
Some might argue that recent government actions (taxes, fees, spectrum prices, network neutrality rules) actually have hindered investment and innovation. Even efforts to make more spectrum available have been hampered by high prices, especially when more unlicensed spectrum, made available to networks at no charge, are a reasonable way to enable new Internet of Things sensor networks.
In any event, the horizon for 5G, coming so soon after a massive move to 4G, is going to stress mobile operator balance sheets. Despite the desire to “lead in 5G,” that is going to be very difficult, given the amount of capital just now going into 4G platforms.
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