Qualcomm said 5G FWA will create new opportunities in the consumer and enterprise segments
5G fixed wireless access (FWA) will be a crucial technology for enabling last-mile connectivity in India, local newspaper Economic Times reported, citing Savi Soin, president of Qualcomm India.
Soin also noted that this technology will also create new opportunities in the consumer and enterprise segments. Qualcomm is currently working with local carrier Reliance Jio Infocomm on 5G FWA technology.
“We announced our fixed wireless cooperation which is JioAirFiber. We are also looking at what we can do on access points and lots of other areas. We have done PoCs in the past with them. Right now, Jio has aspirations in the home and the enterprise. We are here to support them with silicone, software, and anything in tech that they need,” the executive said.
“5G FWA is an amazing opportunity. We are seeing a tremendous opportunity where you cannot connect fiber. I think the sky’s the limit. Obviously, the pricing has to be right, the use cases have to be right, and the ease of deployment has to be right. You have to add more value to the Indian consumer, such as JioCinema and other things that Jio has bundled. If I can get the right user experience for people to adopt, then there will be a massive adoption,” Soin added.
The executive noted that 5G FWA technology will be key for last-mile connectivity. “We are also looking at what point does millimeter wave come in. That is the stuff that we have been talking about with Jio, Airtel and other carriers. Pricing is the elephant in the room, but the pricing is a function of volume. Once we see the success, you will see your volume pick up and you will see the pricing go down,” he added.
Commenting on what other 5G-driven use cases could emerge in India in 2024, the Qualcomm executive noted that the chipmaker is focusing more on use cases in the manufacturing space, in warehouses and in the mining sector.
“We will explore what can we do in terms of providing 5G around connected cameras, industrial handhelds and industrial tablets connecting machines,” Soin added.
Commenting on the potential of RedCap technology in India, the executive said that Qualcomm is currently working in this space in partnership with Ericsson and Bharti Airtel. He added that the company is seeing a lot of interest around connected cameras for surveillance, smart cities and industrial applications.
In October, Bharti Airtel and Ericsson confirmed they had successfully tested Ericsson’s pre-commercial RedCap software on the former’s 5G network.
Ericsson said that the test was carried out in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, using its 5G RedCap test module.
RedCap, sometimes referred to as NR Light, is a reduced set of 5G capabilities intended for devices like wearables and low-cost hotspots that have low battery consumption, lower costs and lower bandwidth requirements. Introduced with 3GPP Release 17, 5G RedCap is designed for devices currently served by LTE CAT-4 but provides equivalent or better in performance with up to 150 Mbps theoretical maximum downlink throughput. This technology helps reduce the complexity, cost and size of 5G devices.
