[Answered] Discuss the significance and challenges of fiberisation in India ahead of India’s 5G deployment.

India is preparing to auction off about 72 Ghz of airwaves to rollout 5G services in the country. However, the infrastructure needed for such a rollout requires existing radio towers to be connected via optical-fibre cables. The process of connecting radio towers with each other via optical fibre cables is called fiberisation.

Significance of fiberisation:

• It helps provide full utilisation of network capacity, and carry large amounts of data once 5G services are rolled out.
• It will aid in providing additional bandwidth and stronger backhaul support that is responsible for carrying data across the network.
• Fibre-based media, commonly called optical media, provides almost infinite bandwidth and coverage, low latency and high insulation from interference.
• With 5G, it will also be necessary to increase the density of mobile towers to provide better coverage to consumers and businesses. This calls for increased requirements for fibre deployment.
• Government programmes like BharatNet and Smart Cities will further add to the demand of fibre deployment, necessitating a complete tower fiberisation.

Challenges:

• Investment: About ₹5 lakh crore will be needed to set up 15 lakh towers in the next four years, according to estimates by the National Broadband Mission and Cellular Operator Association of India (COAI).
• Slow speed: To achieve the vision to connect every village in the country with optical fiber cable (OFC) in 1,000 days, cables must be laid at a speed of 1,251 km a day, around 3.6 times the current average speed of 350 km a day.
• Right of Way (RoW) rules: While all States/UTs are required to implement these rules, they are not in complete alignment and still require certain amendments to align.
• Further, several districts and local bodies have not agreed to the RoW policies of respective States and are following their own bylaws.
• Other central Ministries like the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Civil Aviation, etc. have not yet adopted these Rules, citing their own departmental rules.

The need of the hour is to unlock the full potential of India’s optical fibre industry and enable India to emerge as a major manufacturing and technology hub while achieving self-reliance in its 5G journey.