When India began its transition to 5th-gen mobile communications, the objective was to lay the foundation for a resilient, future-ready digital infrastructure capable of supporting India's next phase of economic and tech growth. Trai's recommendations on spectrum pricing, auction design and band harmonisation in 2022 ensured that India has one of the fastest 5G rollouts in the world.
Key enablers of advanced 5G deployments, including use of network slice from a telecom company's public land mobile network (PLMN), allowing deployment of a captive private network, were approved. India's data consumption-rich landscape demands a sophisticated and adaptive network infrastructure. This is precisely where 5G network slicing emerges not just as an innovation but a strategic imperative.
Network slicing is a feature of 5G networks that allows telecom operators to create logically partitioned networks providing customised solutions for different market and business scenarios. If the network is like a busy highway, network slicing allows different vehicles to be put into different lanes on this highway. This ensures predictable performance, priority where needed and uninterrupted flow, rather than all traffic competing for the same limited road space.
Network slicing, as evidenced by global deployments, simply enables logical partitioning of network resources to meet objectively defined technical requirements such as latency, reliability, security or availability. These performance attributes apply uniformly across all internet traffic within a slice. All websites and applications benefit equally, with no content-specific prioritisation or degradation.
Some may raise questions about the implications of network slicing. But the regulatory position is clear: the sole restriction is on discrimination based on content. Under 2016 Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, telecom service providers are barred from treating data traffic differently based on the application, website or platform. In practical terms, this means an operator cannot preferentially accelerate a streaming service over a social media platform based on content.
Another concern that may crop up around network slicing is its implications on network congestion. In practice, the opposite is true. Built on the inherently higher capacity and flexibility of 5G networks, slicing enables more efficient utilisation of network resources by dynamically allocating capacity where it is needed most. Rather than all traffic competing for the same pool of resources, slices allow traffic to be managed based on clearly defined technical parameters, improving predictability and overall performance.
In a country of India's size and data consumption volumes, network slicing allows telecom service providers (TSPs) to ensure stable speeds and low latency even during peak usage, resulting in reliable connectivity in crowded locations for a category of consumers. At present, only network slicing can facilitate use cases that require high-speed, low-latency internet connection without affecting the quality of various classes of customers.
For example, TSPs use network slicing to deliver 'fibre-like' experiences, allowing them to create premium, high-speed and guaranteed-performance broadband plans without affecting the quality of other classes of mobile users in the networks. As consumer expectations increasingly shift from mere access to assured quality, network slicing enables telecom networks to keep pace with evolving digital lifestyles.
Telcos like Singtel in Singapore, Verizon in the US, and EE from Britain's BT Group have already begun offering these services. Further, regulators in all these regions have expressed support for slicing to provide differentiated service experiences without affecting the quality of these different classes of services.
Slicing is also crucial to strengthen communication services for mission critical services, like first response, and law enforcement. These mission critical services depend on guaranteed availability, ultra-low latency and assured priority access, even when public networks are congested or partially disrupted. In the US, Verizon has a Frontline Network Slice, which provides guaranteed dedicated bandwidth to first responders displaying global use of slicing for mission critical services.
Advanced 5G capabilities such as network slicing are no longer experimental. They are being deployed to support public safety, enterprise security, industrial innovation and trusted digital services. India cannot afford to remain a passive observer of these developments.
