Financial incentives necessary to encourage 5G adoption: Industry to TRAI

The key hurdles to 5G deployment that stakeholders highlighted included infrastructure limitations, spectrum availability and affordability, and regulatory hurdles while getting permissions and licences

To encourage adoption of 5G and internet of things (IoT) devices, the government needs to make approval processes leaner and give financial incentives to start-ups involved in the field, industry stakeholders said in response to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s consultation on Digital Transformation through 5G Ecosystem, which ended on January 22.

In its consultation paper, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had posited internet of things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, and metaverse as some of the key applications of 5G ecosystem. The regulatory body had sought inputs on three main issues: how to increase adoption of 5G and what are the barriers to this; how to increase adoption of IoT devices and how to develop regulatory policies to maintain user privacy and security of data; and third, how to regulate metaverse and issues of privacy and content moderation that may arise.

The key hurdles to 5G deployment that stakeholders highlighted included infrastructure limitations, spectrum availability and affordability, and regulatory hurdles while getting permissions and licences. All stakeholders called for easing the spectrum allocation process and approval processes related to installing small cells on available street furniture.

Vi lauded the new Telecommunications Act, 2023, for making the process to get RoW (right of way) approvals easier. The beleaguered telecom service provider (TSP) also wants heavy levies on operators and huge spectrum prices to be reconsidered.

BSNL recommended that the government should create an umbrella regulatory body that prepares a single set of policies and regulatory guidelines for the 5G ecosystem which includes cross-sectoral stakeholders. Vi, Ericsson and Nokia also called for the creation of cross-sectoral and multistakeholder bodies to create a roadmap for identifying 5G use cases and 5G deployment.

Jio called net neutrality and data charging rules “restrictive” and called for a more agile regulatory framework to deal with 5G.

Tata Communication, Ericsson and Vi recommended the creation of a 5G sandbox to test new use cases. Tata Communication also warned that India should be “vigilant against repeating errors, particularly those related to enabling a single company’s monopolistic control over the 5G market”.

Nasscom and Jio want a sunset date for 2G and 3G networks to lower operational costs and to develop new 5G cases. Vi said that the penetration of 5G phones and smartphones is low because of high costs. Vi and Nokia want handset subsidies for users which could be provided through the TSP concerned “for giving up feature phones and purchasing subsided smartphones”, Nokia said.

Vi also wants 4G/5G infrastructure to be declared critical infrastructure under the new Telecom Act so that incidents of vandalism and theft of telecom equipment can be addressed. It also wants guidelines on “vandalism proof design, installations and real time protection of infrastructure components”.

Tata Communications wants the Department of Telecommunications to allow micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to set up a cellular private network for their own use without depending on any TSP. Currently, all licences to set up any network are routed through the department of telecommunications (DoT).

Broadband India Forum (BIF), an industry body whose members include Google, Amazon and Meta, recommended that to allow M2M communication in private networks, which is a novel use case of 5G, there is a need to offer direct spectrum allocation of 5G to enterprises. While this was approved by the Union Cabinet on June 15, 2022, it has not been implemented yet.

Financial incentives for IoT adoption

To encourage adoption of IoT, BSNL, Tata Communication, Vi want policies and regulations for developers and start-ups working on IoT to be eased. BSNL wants import duty on telecom equipment to be relaxed to encourage R&D around 5G and IoT use cases.

BIF and Vi called for financial incentives for startups to focus on IoTs. These incentives could include government grants, seed funding, long-term tax holidays, subsidies, subsidised loans, tax breaks, or discounted access to technology like analytics platforms, cloud services, etc. Nokia wants IoT devices to be subsidised for SMEs and agricultural applications. It wants the government to provide rebates or vouchers for IoT home devices to encourage consumer adoption.

Jio has also recommended that IoT and M2M applications that cover critical areas such as manufacturing, telemedicine and healthcare, connected vehicles, home equipment, smart meters, should not be covered when the government orders internet shutdowns. “It is pertinent that as these SIMs comply with restrictive communication requirements, they cannot be used for any anti-social activities and can easily be excluded for data services shutdown requirements,” Jio said.

Nasscom and Jio want the government to review current restrictions on data connectivity for IoT and M2M uses. Currently, data communication or M2M SIMs can only be allowed to four predefined public URLs/IPs. “This restriction is proving to be a major issue with most popular M2M solutions,” Jio wrote.

Jio also called for standardisation and interoperability standards for M2M devices.

Jio and Nasscom have also asked the government to develop a uniform policy to integrate Subscription Manager Secure Routing (SM-SR) platform for all M2M devices imported to India. Jio wants TRAI “to consult and enunciate a clear policy” that will address both the requirements of global interoperability and national security.

Privacy and security

BSNL wants TRAI to lay more emphasis on data privacy, data protection and cybersecurity as IoT and M2M communication grow in scale.

BIF mentioned that nearly 98% of IoT traffic is unencrypted. BIF called for all M2M and IoT data to be encrypted. It recommended that the National Trust Centre (NTC) framework should be made an independent legal entity, and NTC certification should be made mandatory for all new devices. BIF said that for non-critical IoT applications like smart meter reading, end to end encryption can be made optional to control price of IoT devices.

Vi wants a common framework and methodology that focuses on interoperability, compliance and assessment and adaptability to emerging threats to govern sector specific IoT security and privacy guidelines. Sector-specific guidelines are required given the different risk profiles in different sectors, sector specific regulatory requirement, varying data sensitivity (telemetric data versus personal data), diverse operational environments (factory versus home), and legacy systems integrations.

Regulatory clarity needed

Tata Communications said that the new Telecom Act does specifically address the requirements of new and emerging fields in the telecom sector such as Captive Non-Public Network (CNPN) Services, M2M communication and IoT. Thus, the law may not be able to address the issues that are affecting these businesses leading to loss of opportunities.

BIF said that exemptions granted under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act are not “in consonance with principles of necessity and proportionality” given in the apex court’s Puttaswamy judgement on right to privacy. “Hence, such exemptions must be narrowly constructed to foster greater trust among the citizens regarding sharing and processing their personal data,” BIF wrote.

Nasscom said that it could not comment on the effectiveness of DPDP Act to address IoT-related concerns as the law depends on delegated legislation and operational practices of Data Protection Board.

Nokia wants clarity on how the DPDP Act would be applied to IoT devices, especially for data minimisation and user consent.