DoT's interministerial committee makes headway in developing 5G use cases

Eight out of 14 union ministries, which are part of the DoT’s interministerial committee to explore 5G use cases, have identified educational institutions that will become centres of excellence. The institutions will take forward engagement with the telecom industry to develop vertical-specific use cases in 5G, reported The Hindu BusinessLine on Tuesday.

At the India Mobile Congress, telecom service providers, system integrators, and other indigenous network solution providers will demonstrate 5G use cases to the ministries and potentially to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources from the Department of Telecommunications told BusinessLine. The India Mobile Congress, India's flagship event for telecom, will be held in October.

The DoT is directing the inter-ministerial committee to explore the incorporation of the benefits of 5G technology into public infrastructure. As the launch of 5G will increase the scope of telephony by manifold, the DoT is discussing the use cases that include a private network for police communications, 5G incorporation in hazardous applications such as mining, and also in public waterworks systems for agriculture, reported the business daily.

The interministerial committee includes the Ministry of Mines, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Railways among others.

“We are introducing members of the industry including telecom service providers, system integrators such as TCS, Wipro etc, indigenous network solutions providers as well as bigger network vendors such as Nokia and Erricson to these ministries. The goal is to familiarise the ministries with the existing 5G technology for the ministries to develop relevant user cases utilising the same,” a top DoT official told BusinessLine.

The telecom department has also drafted a whitepaper on 5G use cases for the ministries involved in this purpose.