At its factory at Oragadam near Chennai, Nokia is set by this month end, to manufacture 5G-ready Air-Scale base stations — the equipment that allows telecom providers to offer 5G-speed services. A tool to connect people to people — and information — will transform into a new fabric connecting people to everything.2 billion — that is 93 out of 100 Indians. It will have as much impact on society as electricity did in an earlier age, they predict, triggering a new industrial revolution. To be able to harness the dozens of such connected devices that any one individual commands, a central communicator is necessary in every one&wholesale Folding clothes bag39;s hands.The smack of firm purpose is also visible in official corridors.In the 45 years since Motorola engineer-inventor Martin Cooper made the world's first commercial voice call from a portable instrument, on the streets of New York, the technology of mobile, cellular telephony has seen four up ticks, roughly one every decade.

In the process, bulky analog phones gave way to sleek digital instruments; text-based messaging became a popular additional service; phones could access the Internet at ever zippier speeds — and the tail wagged the dog: data replaced voice as the primary vehicle of communication. This is Nokia’s lar-gest production unit and these base stations will allow operators to make a smooth transition to 5G while still supporting 4G from the same hardware. It has also announced that it is poised to deploy state-of-the-art Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology, key enabler for 5G networks, starting with Bengaluru and Kolkata (see box below: ‘Father of MIMO’). Last month, official numbers from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) put the number of telephones subscribed at just over 1. Yet there is a palpable air of excitement and expectation, a flurry of announcements by phone makers, telecom providers — and governments — which makes this different from all earlier advances in the mobile phone business. The prognosis is good that ‘5G hai ji!’ will be a real and meaningful mantra for Indians, two years down the roadWhat 5G can do for youAt the Global Mobile Broadband Forum (Global MBBF) in London last month, Huawei identified the top ten most promising 5G use cases:Cloud VR/ARConnected automotiveSmart manufacturingConnected energyWireless eHealthWireless home entertainmentConnected dronesSocial networksPersonal AI assistantSmart # City.

Meanwhile the ubiquity of mobile Internet is helped by initiatives like the RailTel-Google project to provide free WiFi at railway stations — over 200 last month.The harmonious coming together of academic, public and private players at this early stage bodes well for India’s ambitions to leverage futuretech like 5G for governance and citizen empowerment. Why?Experts tell us that 5G will profoundly affect global economies on one hand and peoples’ lifestyles on the other. Industry and government are on the same page: as you read this, 5G test beds are being set up at multiple locations, where the readiness of networks and devices for next generation cellular communication can be tested and prototypes run. The mobile phone will cease to be a gee-whiz gadget and will morph in to a general purpose utility like power or water or transportation. The Forum will provide leadership across the public and private spectrum to ensure a coordinated and time-bound rollout of 5G technologies and infrastructure, and more importantly, the nurturing of innovation and generation of intellectual property in 5G arenas. The bits and pieces are falling into place.