Pvt 5G networks by enterprises won't hurt Telcos: BIF

Private 5G networks will lead to increased productivity for enterprises and drive better revenues for telecom service providers, the Broadband India Forum (BIF) said, dismissing speculation that it will lead to revenue loss for telecom operators.

In a letter to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary K Rajaraman, BIF president TV Ramachandran said that telecom operators will still be deriving a major chunk of revenue from external network services, comprising voice and data communications. ET has reviewed a copy of the letter dated April 22.

BIF counts Cisco, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook-owner Meta, Qualcomm and Intel among its key members.

“Captive usage in the current situation would only contribute a minor share in processes/applications like robotics, automation, etc., due to challenges in delivering the required SLAs through public networks. Therefore, the speculated loss in revenues for telcos via enterprise services is a misplaced one,” Ramachandran said.