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NEW DELHI: 5G-based Reduced Capability (RedCap) technology has the potential to become another ‘killer application’ to drive monetisation for telecom operators and modernisation for enterprises, but it is likely to be adopted in a limited manner until costs associated with sensors and devices reach an economical level, according to top executives of Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio . “If I have to deploy a full-scale 5G for a device like camera, then the cost is going to be huge. The chipset is currently costs between $60 to $80.
That means I cannot have an IoT sensor and IoT devices that have a cost component,” said Dharmender Khajuria, Head of Network Partnerships, at Bharti Airtel. Advt “We have been talking about IoT..
.probably this will become a killer use case,” Khajuria added. He was speaking in a panel discussion on ‘RedCap: Making IoT Work for 5G’ at the first-edition of the ETTelecom 5G Industries Innovation Summit 2024 that concluded Friday.
Currently, IoT devices are powered by various technologies, such as Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT), LTE Cat 1, and LTE-M. 5G RedCap is the official term for 5G NR-Light defined in the 3GPP Release 17. It will support use cases that require more bandwidth than LTE, but do not require full-power of high-end 5G-driven applications.
Counterpoint Research estimates that 5G RedCap modules will comprise 18% of the total cellular IoT module shipments by 2030, driven by market potential, particularly in developing nations where the cost is key to wide technology adoption for digital transformation. Khajuria said 4Cs – cost, complexity, consumption (of power), and concurrency (to support devices at scale) – will be crucial for success of 5G RedCap. As per Airtel, 5G RedCap will support some crucial use cases in India such as telematics (in automotive industry), healthcare, Industry 4.
0, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. “With cost coming down in RedCap, it is viable and doable,” Khajuria said. Once sensors and devices are developed at large scale, then the cost will come down, and it will be deployed in every industry everywhere, said AK Tiwari, President (Regulatory & Policy), Reliance Jio.
“The government has to ensure that IoT proliferates responsibly. It will also require the intervention of the regulators, the industry, and all other stakeholders. All the critical services should be defined, basically.
And then accordingly, industry will proliferate with the orderly growth.” Advt SP Kochhar, Director-General of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said the market forces will decide for themselves which technology they should adopt. However, consider the price sensitiveness of India, it is necessary to “economise the prices of assets” and other components, he added.
“The developed countries may be requiring more capability, but we do not as yet. So therefore, I see a lot of potential here. Our 5G deployment includes both standalone and non-standalone, and in that case, the coverage and the capability will differ from area to area.
..so then RedCap is the answer,” Kochhar said.
Nakshatra Gupta, Solution Head at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), however, said the adoption of RedCap will be slow even if challenges are addressed. “You still have 2G in use, and the IoT devices have a much longer lifecycle. It is a good time to explore this technology and understand what use cases are going to leverage this technology best, and how can you future proof yourself.
So I believe it is at the right place, at the right time,” Gupta said. Neil Shah, Vice President Research, Counterpoint Research, said fixed wireless access (FWA) is a low-hanging fruit, considering the 5G router costs are over $50 (~Rs 4,000), and the RedCap technology could help reduce prices. “That is why we see operators being very creative about having outdoor CPE which is five years, and indoor Wi-Fi 7.
But if you want the indoor 5G CPE, particularly in rural areas, it needs to cost less than $100 or even below $60. That will not be possible with a 5G module. With 5G RedCap, I think that's a big opportunity to connect the digital divide,” Shah said, who moderated this panel discussion.
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