It seems that Indian Telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea are depending on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Internet of Things (IoT) backed by 5G-centric services to boost sectors like agriculture and healthcare. It would be interesting to witness the growth of 5G connectivity in the Indian healthcare and agriculture sector to improve the infrastructure. Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has a lot to say about this. Let’s have a closer look at the latest report.
Cellular Operators Association of India Thoughts About AI and IoT
In a statement, S.P. Kochhar, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), told ET Telecom that IoT as a technology is growing in India for the last couple of years, and now it has gained a stronghold in the Indian market. IoT devices are capable of growing in the 5G era. Further, he added that Artificial Intelligence could be used as a big tool to improve the agriculture sector of India. Delhi-based COAI represents major telecom operators and multinational cutting edge innovation vendors like Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, Cisco, Ciena and Juniper in India. According to the previous reports, Indian Telcos were demanding a 5G trial with dedicated spectrum to research and develop India-specific 5G use cases. According to the operators, this will help them to launch the next-generation services and also lure enterprise customers. A report from Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited suggests that the metropolitans and large cities will witness the 5G development first. Further, the report claims that the capital expenditure for the 5G launch on metro cities and A-grade cities is expected to be between Rs 78,800 crore to Rs 1.3 lakh crore. COAI suggests that government policies and interventions might help in boosting up the 5G powered IoT adoption in the country. According to Kochhar, IoT can help in bringing significant transformation in the healthcare sector, especially when the country is fighting against pandemics like COVID-19. 5G IoT technology can help in hospital drug and waste management, real-time heart monitoring and diagnostics. He also believes that technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in the classroom can help in redefining the entire education system and skills of the students. Reliance Jio, in collaboration with Samsung, is already working on virtual classrooms. The companies have also demonstrated HD content streaming. On the other hand, Airtel is working with Ericsson to bring aerial drones for surveillance and security.
