Imagine this scene: A doctor is conducting ultrasound scans on a patient.
Nothing out of ordinary in this, right?
What if we told you that the doctor was actually sitting in Mumbai, and carrying out the scan on the patient who was in Dehradun - separated by about 1,700 kms of the National Highway.
Sounds impressive? Well, this is now in the realms of immediate possibility as the telecom service provider Vi (Vodafone Idea), using Ericsson’s 5G infrastructure, is trialing the power of 5G to reach healthcare to remote parts of the country.
This particular 5G trial was carried on the network set up by Vi on the government allocated 3.5 GHz mid band & 26 GHz mmWave band in Pune, using Ericsson Radios and Ericsson Dual Mode Core based on cloud native technology comprising 5G SA, 5G NSA & LTE packet core functions.
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Govt. approvals are in place
It may be recalled that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had early this year given the nod to Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to conduct six-month trials for the use and application of 5G technology in India. Over a dozen telecom firms, both local and from other countries, have gotten the go-ahead.
Bharti Airtel, Reliance JioInfocomm, Vodafone Idea and MTNL, which have tied up with original equipment manufacturers and technology providers like Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT, have been given the permission.
5G will open up new vistas
The high data speed, low latency and reliability of 5G is now expected to help medical practitioners reach patients and carry out tests and scans in ways that was unimaginable till now.
In a press statement, Jagbir Singh, CTO, Vi said: “Vi has developed a 5G ready network which builds on India’s fastest Vi GIGAnet network verified by Ookla. With our 5G trials now, we are leveraging the power of 5G to provide healthcare access to remote parts of the country, amongst a range of other use cases for enterprises and consumers. Speed and latency are critical to 5G services, and therefore, our focus has been to achieve throughputs which can effectively enable relevant 5G use cases for the Digital India of tomorrow.”
With the launch of 5G, the digital transformation of enterprises is expected to be accelerated. Further, 5G opens up opportunities for service providers beyond consumers to explore new revenue streams.
“Enhanced mobile broadband and Fixed Wireless Access are expected to be the early use-cases for 5G in India. Over time, we expect more enterprise related use cases to come up leveraging the benefits of 5G in sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, education etc," Amarjeet Singh, Vice President, Ericsson said.
📢 This is BIG! Together with Vi ( @VodaIdea_NEWS ), we are transforming healthcare in India 🇮🇳 with the power of #5G. Explore more on how 5G can enable access to healthcare in remote parts of the country⤵️November 2, 2021
Ericsson and Vi have set a flexible Dual Mode Core in Pune to help enterprises leverage the network to test out remote video monitoring, telemedicine during the ongoing trials.
Ericsson’s 5G Business Compass report estimates the total 5G-enabled B2B opportunity for Indian operators, across 10 industries, would be $17 billion by 2030.
The top industries that are expected to leverage 5G for their digitalization include healthcare, manufacturing, energy and utilities, automotive and public safety.
Meanwhile, Vi has also partnered with Nokia to trial 5G services through E-Band in areas where fiber is challenging to deploy.
