A year on, weak signal for private 5G captive networks

INDIA'S 5G ROLLOUT speed may be one of the fastest in the world in just a year of launch

- JATIN GROVER

But where the country is falling behind is in the adoption of private captive networks by its enterprises.

India lags behind the US, Japan, Germany, UK and China, among other geographies, on this parameter, according to industry executives and Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA).

GSA, which counts companies such as Intel, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Nokia, Ericsson as its members, pegs India at the 16th position in terms of private 5G network adoption by enterprises.

Industry executives engaged with enterprises cite the lack of prominent use cases, absence of an integrated ecosystem for bundled services, aversion to taking spectrum on lease or via network slicing from telcos, and a higher dependency on telcos as some of the reasons for the slow take-up of private 5G solutions.

According to GSA, a dedicated spectrum for private networks could boost the adoption of private 5G in the country. "There is typically a strong, positive correlation between the number of private mobile network references and countries with dedicated spectrum," GSA said in a report.