The Delhi-based industry group Dipa has shared insights that could help attain 10 Gbps – 20 Gbps capabilities in the fifth generation or 5G era. According to the director-general at Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (Dipa), Tilak Raj, there is a need to deploy small cells and fibre across telecom infrastructure sites in order to achieve these goals. For those unaware, Dipa represents telecom infrastructure providers such as ATC Tower Corporation, Tower Vision, Indus Towers and V-Con Telecom Towers.
Why Small Cells?
Tilak Raj Dua in a statement said that a Traditional microwave can only provide speeds of 500 Mbps-1 Gbps whereas an E-band-based microwave can provide 1-2.5 Gbps of speed depending on the allocation of the number of spots. However, to achieve capacities of 10-20 Gbps, there is a need to deploy small cells and fibre across all the tower sites. The director-general at Dipa talked about the crucial role of small cells in the 5G network rollout. He stated that small cells will support a higher number of users simultaneously facilitating a low-cost deployment. Putting it in simpler words, the infrastructure provider’s representative believes that the deployment of small cells might result in the provision of customised coverage for private 5G networks. Dua went on to state that the telecom towers will play a key role once the 5G network arrives as it is much more efficient for telecom operators to share or lend infrastructure than to start from scratch, and tower companies offer this infrastructure for sharing on a non-discriminatory basis. Speaking at the 5G India Leadership Summit 2022, Dua stated that small cells will not only provide scalability at a low-cost but will also provide the same enhanced speed, capacity and ultra-low latency in hyper-dense areas as the 5G networks will focus on. Currently, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is expected to finalise the next modalities for the next spectrum sale after it receives approval from the cabinet. The government is aiming to 5auction 5G airwaves somewhere around August 15. Dua stated that the latest technology is just around the corner and the telecom industry and the government is trying to close all loose ends to make the rollout smooth suggesting that small cells would help efficiently enable infrastructure.
