Director Presales, India & SAARC, Cambium Networks
The world of mobile connectivity is on an ever rising trajectory and India is no different to this trend. In fact in India the proliferation of mobile medium has resulted in emergence of equally strong network of digital ecosystem. The convergence of technology and mobility has thus resulted in new-age consumer friendly value propositions spanning sectors such as ecommerce, healthcare, entertainment to cite a few.
The year 2019 witnessed rapid advancement of new age digital technologies namely IoT, IIoT, AI, ML and Cloud that all heavily depend on mobile connectivity. In India, where the landscape continues to face challenges on account of scarce spectrum, Wi-Fi played a savior. The space witnessed increased PPP (public private partnership) form of association for entities to collectively offer free Wi-Fi services as part of utility offerings to the larger mass. Thus one is likely to encounter free Wi-Fi services in public areas such as airports, railway stations, community centers.
India also witnessed Wi-Fi being now looked upon as a standard offering in sectors such as education, hospitality, smart cities.
One distinct and noteworthy relevance of Wi-Fi that strongly emerged on a global scale and closer home in India is that of its application in Disaster Recovery Management.
Thus the dependence on Wi-Fi based connectivity remained a strong wave catering to various needs of end-users including entertainment needs, access to Netflix and Amazon and so on.
The upcoming New Year is all set to further advance these trends particularly in areas such as public Wi-Fi Solutions, disaster recovery, video security and school and campus Wi-Fi Solutions. This is turn is giving rise to new-age value propositions as well as business models.
Publicly available research reflects that by the year 2021 public Wi-Fi hot spots will grow from 94 million in 2016 to 541.6 million. This trend emphasizes the fact that mobile data connectivity enjoys a strong sustainable consumer appeal by connecting the connecting to co-create multiple opportunities for future expansion.
For instance while the initial steps have been taken in the area of rural healthcare, next level of advancement should ensure that it reaches out to larger audience and it is here that Wi-Fi connectivity will play a crucial role. In such a scenario, the availability of Wi-Fi based data connectivity will help extend its benefits beyond healthcare to areas that enable livelihood such as trading of craft, handicraft, unique income generating avenues to cite a few.
Not only in rural areas, available of seamless connectivity is also expected to aid economy in Tier 2 cities with research suggesting that such a scenario will help trigger consumer spends to the tune of around 45-50% thereby giving boost to domestic manufacturing, job creations, and overall consumption.
Additionally, advancements related to 5G are expected to materialize in the year 2020 with the first phase of 5G technology enabling next generation architecture and further fortifying the fixed wireless broadband market as well as influencing how devices interconnect. It is worth noting that this will be possible because 5G will enable millimeter wave i.e. high frequency architecture which will increase wireless data capacity and speed.
The three main functions that it will accelerate include:
- Incorporate fixed wireless broadband as a key application in both licensed and lightly licensed/unlicensed frequency bands
- Enable millimeter wave spectrum usage
- Support machine-to-machine real-time communications
As the world of wireless connectivity continues to evolve, the resultant outcome is the transformation of our lifestyle to an enhanced level. The ensuing year promises to further enable us to optimize our fullest potential and also make the industries achieve newer benchmarks in business excellence.