Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (“TRAI”) releases a consultation paper on “Digital Inclusion in the Era of Emerging Technologies”

TRAI has recently, on December 22, 2023 extended the deadline for submitting their comments by January 15, 2024 and counter comments by January 29, 2024 on the request of the stakeholders.

The 5G service was launched on October 01, 2022. Ever since there have been several initiatives and recommendations for faster deployment of 5G services in the country. The use of 5G along with AI, extended reality (“XR”) and the Internet of Things (“IoT”) will enable businesses and society to realise the full benefits of the emerging technologies. However, achieving this will require effective ecosystem collaboration between TSPs, OEMs, Infrastructure providers and the government to increase consumer adoption and market readiness to unlock large-scale benefits of 5G.

Faster adoption of 5G technology will depend on factors such as (1) infrastructure upgradation, (2) fiberisation for the deployment of 5G, (3) network densification, and (4) R&D investments to develop India-specific use cases, enterprise penetration, device affordability, and consumer adoption.

TRAI has come up with a consultation paper on September 29, 2023 with the objective to identify the policy challenges and to suggest the right policy framework for faster adoption and effective utilisation of new technologies for the holistic and sustainable development of the economy driven by 5G ecosystem.