5G will change how telcos in India earn revenue: Cisco

The core beneficiaries of 5G will be enterprises which will dramatically change how telecom operators in India and rest of the Asia Pacific and Japan region earn their revenue in the next five years, a top executive of global networking giant Cisco said here on Monday.

"In the 5G era, telcos will earn 70 per cent of their net revenue from enterprises. Right now, only 30 per cent of their revenue comes from enterprises, while the rest comes from consumers," Sanjay Kaul, Head of Asia Pacific and Japan, Service Provider Business, Cisco, told IANS during an interaction at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2019 here.

"This is a huge shift. For example, if you go to a factory and make it smart, you can significantly reduce their operating cost and telecom operators can then claim a share of the credit for reducing the cost of operation and earn some revenue in return," Kaul added.

Cisco, he said, will be able to help telcos monetise their services as the company manages almost 70 per cent of internal network of most enterprises.

"5G+C=M. This means 5G plus Cisco equals monetisation. This is because Cisco brings in technology, it brings in the the know how of enterprises and enterprises are already our customers," he said, adding that 5G will dramatically change the e-commerce sector, financial services, logistics and some manufacturing segments in the country.

"There is a good chance that 5G will transform the agriculture sector in India. For example, 5G may enable driverless tractors. The major impediment to driverless cars has been the lack of proper infrastructure. But with driverless tractors, you do not need proper lanes as chances of accidents in fields will be less," Kaul elaborated.

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For a robust 5G ecosystem in the country, a strong partnership among major stakeholders is a must.

"We are one of the core partners for Reliance Jio. We are a very strong partner of Bharti Airtel and Cisco is also working with Vodafone Idea," he said.

"To bring 5G faster to the country, the government will have to make it viable for telecom operators to offer its services. It will have to reduce the prices of spectrum, increase fiberisation. Telcos will have to embrace transformation of their IP network and their data centre network," he said.

During his address at the IMC 2019, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that spectrum auction will be done within the current financial year and he also assured the industry that the government is bringing some reforms in spectrum pricing as well.