In an exclusive interview, Maharashtra Additional Director General of Police and Cyber Expert Brijesh Singh explains how the launch of 5G network will benefit Maharashtra and what are the opportunities and challenges.
Q: How is the launch of the 5G network important for Maharashtra and how will it help bridge the urban and rural divide?
A: The 5G network launch will increase speed, connectivity and more bandwidth. It will be able to simultaneously connect to a large number of devices that will reduce the power consumption. It will also reduce battery consumption by a factor of degrees. User experience will be the same in urban and rural areas. At present, the accessibility in rural areas was limited due to bandwidth but the 5G network will open up a huge bandwidth even for rural customers.
The industries will also benefit in case of the maintenance report, troubleshooting , equipment maintenance , warehousing.
Q: How is Maharashtra equipped to take advantage of the 5G network?
A: Maharashtra has one of the highest internet penetration. With high literacy and more bandwidth, the commercialisation of the 5G network will be faster as it will open up huge commercialisation possibilities in the state. Since there are agriculture users, drone users, the companies will also benefit. With real time drones, they can be controlled from anywhere and they can be used to spray insecticides and pesticides in agriculture and for crop monitoring. This apart, agriculture services and health will also benefit hugely.
Q: What are the opportunities & challenges?
A: The 5G technology will increase the collection of data. In rural areas since the availability of high bandwidth and excellent network speed business will get a boost. There would be more opportunities in rural areas. People come to cities for urban infrastructures but the application of 5G technology can curb overcrowding by providing excellent good quality services in rural areas.The businesses can focus on the value chain for cost reduction.
As far as challenges are concerned, the government can step in and facilitate a vendor eco system which can leverage them to provide public digital infrastructure. The civic bodies can benefit.
The roll out of the 5G network will open up opportunities for skilled based specialists, electricians, repairers and those who will be required for installations.
Q: How will the 5G network help curb cyber crimes?
A: Police will have to learn to adapt to the new technology. This is necessary as on 5G devices the locational barometers will be entirely different and also the formats of data sharing,. The Police will have to invest in new devices for forensics analysis, hardware, software and even in capabilities to handle this.
