TRAI chairman P D Vaghela on Monday exhorted telecom companies and Wi-Fi providers to work collaboratively on developing innovative business models that would unleash combined power of mobile and Wi-Fi technology to improve digital infrastructure.
“With technologies like industry 4.0, 5G broadcast, Artificial Intelligence, AR/VR, machine-to-machine communication and robotics, the data usage will grow exponentially,” Vaghela said.
Speaking at an event of Broadband India Forum (BIF), TRAI chief noted that with proposed induction of 5G services, an “exponential” rise in data usage is right around the corner.
Studies have found that in 5G countries such as South Korea, the UK, the US, Japan, Australia and Germany, smartphone users on average consumed between 1.7 and 2.7 times more mobile data after the introduction of fifth-generation services, as compared to 4G.
He called upon telecom service providers and Wi-Fi hotspot providers to work together and come up with India-specific business models.
He further mentioned that ‘Wi-Fi 7’ is also on the horizon, and is expected to significantly increase data download speeds, and offer lower latencies.
“This would truly help compliment 5G technology and improve overall quality of services,” he said.
‘PM WANI’, despite its promising framework, has not made desired progress perhaps due to competition with cheap mobile data or other factors like the need to create greater public awareness, he said.
“If you want to leverage the combined power of mobile and Wi-Fi technology to improve our digital infrastructure, increase digital inclusion, and bring us to the world-level, telecom companies and Wi-Fi providers have to start working together collaboratively and develop innovative business models which are win-win for both, as well as for the consumers,” Vaghela said.
