The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched the “5G Vertical Engagement and Partnership Program (VEPP).” Towards this end, the DoT has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) to build strong collaborative partnerships across 5G Use-case ecosystem stakeholders with velocity and with an exclusive emphasis to address User/Vertical Industry needs, according to an official release from the Ministry of Communications.
The Ministry has stated that to multiply the 5G opportunities across the usage verticals, under the guidance of the Secretary (Telecom), an Inter-Ministerial Committee chaired by Member (Technology), the Digital Communications Commission is constituted with representatives from the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Department of Science and Technology & relevant Vertical Ministries viz. Agriculture, Health, Urban Affairs, Education, Power, Mines, Jalshakthi, Commerce, Ports, Railways, Heavy Industries, Road Transport, Tourism etc. to facilitate collaborative efforts across stakeholders.
The 5G Vertical Engagement and Partnership Program are being offered to Industry verticals that have potential as testing cum breeding grounds for innovative 5G use cases. The anticipated collaboration between User verticals and 5G Tech stakeholders (Service providers, Solution providers & partner OEMs), can trigger a multiplier effect to try and finetune 5G digital solutions in respective economic verticals.
The eligible Stakeholders who can apply for EoI include: Public or private: Individual Vertical Enterprise user /Group of Enterprises (Multiple verticals) such as Logistic Hubs, Factories, Agri Institutions, Power Utility Companies, Hospitals, Mining Agencies, Educational / Skill Development Institutions, Banks/Banking institutions, CoEs, Malls/Recreation centres/Retail stores, Tourism & cultural centres, Hotels, Ports, Airports, Stadiums, Manufacturing Units etc.
Moreover, other eligible sectors include Service providers such as Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) and M2M service providers; Solution Providers/System Integrators (SIs) such as End to End Use case providers (including OEMs), System Integrators; Solution Partners/ /Devices, Sensors, Equipment Vendors (OEMs), Any Start-up/MSME/industry which has demonstrable use cases, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in Network Domain, OEMs in CPEs/Devices/Instruments/Sensors/Smart Machinery & Meters/ Devices/robots/Drones (BLVOS)etc. in all user verticals viz. Medical, Power, Smart Metering, IoT, Mining etc.
The selected Stakeholders under 5G VEPP will have access to new opportunities and facilitation in the untapped 5G Ecosystem. Their role would be: Identify a Single Point of Contact (SPoC), Ideate and collaborate with other ecosystem players for relevant 5G use cases, Facilitate access to relevant premises/campus/infra/data for use-case piloting and prototyping to address prevalent problems and also performance efficiencies, Hold vertical-specific Hackathons to encourage digital innovations from new innovators apart from existing partners, Other actions as may be necessary to support the 5G ecosystem.
On the other hand, the DoT would offer Non-exclusive access to the 5G Tech Ecosystem (Telecom Service Providers, Solution providers, Solution partners/Device & Equipment vendors) to enable partnerships, Conduct awareness sessions on 5G opportunity in the respective vertical at NTIPRIT, etc.
The Service providers, Solution providers, Solution partners, and Device & Equipment OEMs would be required to work in unison to develop, prototype, pilot, and deploy Use cases as per the needs of the Vertical User requirements which would potentially accelerate 5G commercial deployment and adoption by enterprises.
