French technology company Capgemini said that enterprises owning 5G spectrum will give them better control over their plans, thereby reducing dependency. It, however, added that telecom operators will have a role to play for private enterprise networks as managing networks aren’t core competencies of enterprises.

“...even if the spectrum is available with an industry player, I don't see the situation where the telcos will not be working with the industry in facilitating that. The industry will use 5G as a connectivity, and it's just not 5G, it is with hybrid cloud, edge computing, IoT, and all other technologies together,” Monika Gupta - Vice President, Group 5G & Edge lead for Industries & Partnerships, Capgemini, told.

Industries have key requirements which are very specific including safety, security and the protection of their data. So, a 5G private network is one solution which ensures that all the data with the connectivity which is there in the particular enterprise campus stays within the campus and doesn't go out.

“This is not possible in a macro network or in a telco network because in a telco network, it will be ubiquitously available, and anybody can use it or latch it. And hence private networks are one of the key solution offerings with respect to 5G for its adoption towards industries,” she added.

“5G connectivity is not their [enterprises'] core operations or their core business. And the telcos will always have a role and some contribution to make in this irrespective of whether they own the spectrum, or the spectrum is with the industry,” she added. “The adoption of 5G for industries is an ecosystem play.”

Capgemini is currently working with Bharti Airtel under a strategic partnership to develop 5G use cases for enterprises. “...two of our use cases have actually been deployed in Airtel Manesar’s lab,” she added.

Capgemini also works with many of the industry clients in India, many of them being our global MNC clients who have large R&D setups, global R&D IT hubs or operations based out of India, she informed.

On 5G, she said that while the launch has been delayed, India can still leverage 5G adoption-related learnings from other countries in terms of adopting certain use cases by localizing.

“...the advantage which India has both for telcos and industries is that there is so much learning which can come to India. Capgemini and many of these global MNCs play a crucial role because when we work on similar projects in other countries and in other regions like Europe, America and Asia Pacific, all of this knowledge is then kind of readily available to us in India,” she added.

A lot of 5G projects in other countries have been delivered out of India, she said, adding that the country already has skill sets and people’s capability for 5G deployment.

“...the fine tuning which is required is what works for India. The local customization will happen. India has had a very short phase of 5G trials. Now whenever 5G is commercially available India will go straight into a rollout of 5G and will see a quick adoption,” she added.

Capgemini has a global network of labs. It recently opened a 5G lab in a strategic partnership with Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson to test enterprise use cases.

The company also has a similar lab in Paris, which is our headquarters. It has the third lab in Portugal, while the fourth one is coming up in America.

“All of these labs are primarily industry focused labs. With the industry focus lab, we are primarily experimenting with innovating the application of 5G into industrial operations. So these labs actually replicate a lab environment of an enterprise architecture and 5G becomes an integral connectivity piece in that architecture,” Gupta added.