"RedCap can play a critical role in shaping India's digital future"

Airtel has conducted successful trials of RedCap devices in collaboration with Ericsson, demonstrating the technology's potential within our network.

- Shubhendu Parth

With over 28 years of experience in the telecom industry, Randeep Singh Sekhon currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer for Airtel India and South Asia. Under his leadership, Airtel has become one of the top three mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. From overseeing technology strategy and network innovation to driving digitisation and ensuring seamless rollout of 5G, Randeep plays a critical role in shaping Airtel’s technological advancements. Before this, he was the CEO of Hutchison Tri Indonesia, where he successfully led a customer-centric and digital transformation journey. In this exclusive interview with Shubhendu Parth, he delves into the emergence of RedCap technology, its potential to revolutionise IoT in India, and how it will shape the future of 5G in sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, and smart cities. He also discusses the integration of RedCap into Airtel’s existing infrastructure and the role it will play in bridging the digital divide across the country. Excerpts:

Redcap is emerging as a solution for IoT and low-power devices. How do you see its adoption shaping up in India?

The introduction of RedCap, or reduced-capability devices, by 3GPP, marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the 5G ecosystem. This technology is designed to leverage 5G’s wide-scale deployments with fewer functionalities, offering an optimal balance between performance, cost, and power consumption. RedCap broadens the scope of 5G, making it more accessible for IoT and low-power devices, bridging the gap between cost and performance for delivering broadband IoT services.