Is Workforce Transformation in the Telecom Sector happening with the Speed of 5G?

Current scenario:

IT becomes one of the top paymasters with a salary growth greater than 10%. IT jobs are in demand and profiles with specialised digital functions are in a greater spot. Some of these jobs will also affect the telecom sector in India.
Telecom interestingly gets impacted when IT does. As per the recent reports, Bangalore & Delhi topped the list with high intent to hire. The IT sector had the highest intent to hire with 89%. Hiring increased in tier-2/tier-3 cities due to improved demand. The salary growth is now at 9.23% for IT profiles in Q1 FY23. IT has become one of the top paymasters across, this directly and indirectly could impact the telecom sector.
Start-up hiring attracted talent from larger tech firms. The Telecom sector seems to be comfortable coming back to the pre-covid levels. Technology and telecom jobs can soar higher opportunities and offer hybrid working options.
The telecom sector constitutes 7% of all FDI inflows in the country. While there is a creation of an ecosystem taking place, it is not just the IT firms or the telecom sector that are involved.

Concerns/ challenges with the Telecom sector

With newer opportunities & newer challenges, the telecom sector still seems to face a billow. The attrition rate is double-digit. 5G technology may take more time to be functional and operational in India. There could be a lack of balance on how in India it is formalised and distributed across, in the real time. With the delay and due to the upgrade, there might be functional delays, higher charges and overall add on in the expenses being incurred.

PLI for the Telecom Sector

Production Linked Incentive scheme is being implemented by the government of India and aids in the growth and development of the sector. In India, the PLI scheme can help generate employment while smart staffing solutions such as TeamLease Staffing can help in workforce management.

The Government of India has introduced the Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Telecom and Networking products, so as to attract large-scale investments in telecom equipment manufacturing and augment the domestic production capacity.

The scheme encourages domestic and local production to create micro jobs and the motto of putting India to work by TeamLease works with a cause that can align with this. The scheme also encourages for foreign companies to find suitable staffing in India and hiring solutions formalisation can help get better employee management, engagement & DE & I initiatives to be effective.

In line with the larger objective of Make in India, it is expected that the Scheme will bring in investments of around ₹ 3,000 crores and generate large-scale employment. Due to this scheme there will be an incremental production of around ₹ 2.4 lakh crores with exports of around ₹ 2 lakh crores over 5 years.

The technical aspects of the scheme and how that can help the workforce transformation in the Telecom Sector to happen with the Speed of 5G.

The major scheme rolled out by the PLI, showcases scope for segments such as:

For this, the eligibility shall be subject to thresholds of incremental investment and incremental sales of manufactured good whereas for an example the tenure for the Support under the scheme shall be provided for a period of five (5) years from 1.04.2021and the Incentive of 7% to 4% on incremental sales (over base year) of goods manufactured in India.

Core Transmission Equipment, Access and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), Internet of Things (IoT) Access Devices, and Other Wireless Equipment, 4G/5G, Next Generation Radio Access Network and Wireless Equipment, Enterprise equipment: Switches, Routers, Any Other Product: As decided by the EGoS.

The technical highlights of 5G:

1- Low band: Better coverage: better data exchange: 100 Mbps speed.

2- Mid- Band: limitations for coverage: speed lower than the high band: possible issues of penetration of signals

3- High Band: higher speed: limitations in coverage area: limitations in signal penetration

4- Final takeaway: 5G High band speed = 20Gbps VS current 4G =1 Gbps

5- What to expect: Mobile phones that support 5G already out in the market in India however the possible launch of 5G in India is not certain.

6- What is already happening: Telecom equipment makers are manually testing the equipment.

Smart Staffing taking the spot:

Considering the recent initiatives by the government in telecom, the sector is bound to grow at a faster rate and thus stands attractive to the talent in the country. 2022 is important for the telecom talent because The DoT is targeting a combination of 100% broadband connectivity in the villages, 55% fiberisation of mobile towers, average broadband speeds of 25 Mbps, and 30 lakh km of optic fibre rollouts by December 2022.

Digital distributions may change the nature of jobs and give rise to some super specialised jobs but there is no second thought to the fact that there are going to be great employment opportunities in the telecom sector by 2022.

The PLI scheme in the Telecom & Networking Products sector is expected to attract large investments from global players and help domestic companies seize the emerging opportunities and become big players in the export market.

Outro: For a heavily connected digital neural network across cities in India, the Telecom sector sees Industrial IoT as a primary. Hyperconnectivity is the need for all businesses. Even big brands and companies would be planning to build up so as to take the UX to the next level as 5G would be a revolution. The workforce force Transformation in the Telecom Sector can be said to be happening with the Speed of 5G.