Delhi airport, Bengaluru metro and Kandla port picked for 5G pilots

Study will help Trai prepare policy on deploying small cells

The telecom regulator has identified Delhi airport, ‘smart’ city Bhopal, the Bengaluru metro, and Deendayal port (Kandla) in Gujarat for conducting pilot projects using street furniture and aerial cable for the deployment of small cells.

These pilot projects are crucial to understand the regulatory and policy interventions which will be required, especially with the launch of 5G services, when more small cells will become the backbone to support a larger traffic volume per unit area.

While macro towers will be deployed as they were for 4G, huge proliferation of small cells, which have a coverage area as low as 10 metres to a few kilometres, is expected to ensure high data speeds and low latency, especially with the use of high band spectrum. The Cellular Operators Association of India  has been pushing to include small cells in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai's) framework for right of way.   

The plan envisages calling on telecom service providers such as Vodafone Idea and BSNL for Kandla; Airtel, Reliance and Vodafone for Delhi airport; Airtel and Vodafone for Bhopal; and Reliance and BSNL for the Bengaluru metro.

The IP1 (Infrastructure Provider Licence holders) partners who have been identified include Indus Towers for Bhopal, ATC Telecom for  Bengaluru, Ascend Telecom Infrastructure for Delhi, and Summit DigiTel for Kandla.   

Street furniture comprises most equipment installed along the streets and roads -- street lights, traffic signs, bus stops, taxi stands, public toilets, and post boxes.

The use of street furniture and aerial cable obviate the various challenges of right of way which the country faces when it involves digging underground, a time-consuming and cumbersome process.       

The objective of the pilot project is manifold: Identifying street furniture suitable for the deployment of small cells, identifying the minor upgrades which may be required; and developing and recommending best practices for the installation and sharing of street furniture, small cells and aerial fibre in the most cost-effective and efficient way.

The other goals are recommending best practices in deploying greenfield street furniture to make it suitable for small cell and aerial fibre deployment; recommending affordable and efficient right of way best practices for processing the access requests; and finally, recommending regulatory and policy-related interventions to enable a comprehensive framework for small cell deployment.

The live pilot study will help Trai prepare guidelines for the use of street furniture and build a policy and regulatory framework for the expected massive expansion of deployment of small cells which will happen with the roll-out of 5G.

To illustrate the benefits, Trai has said Deendayal port has been chosen so that the various 5G automation processes in ports can improve cargo-handling efficiency.

For example, the Chinese port of Qingdao, one of the 10 busiest in the country, has been upgraded from being a manually operated harbour to an automated one through the use of 5G networks. The field trial showed that Qingdao saved 70 per cent in labour costs when it used the 5G automated upgrade.     

A working group will be set up for each project. Apart from Trai officials, the team will include someone from the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, a representative from the Department of Telecommunications, a member from the relevant agency where the pilot project is being undertaken – such as Delhi International Airport Ltd - in Delhi - the operators and the IP1 company.