Now Reading: TRAI’s 80% rule for 5G slicing may hurt ordinary users, expert warns
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TRAI’s 80% rule for 5G slicing may hurt ordinary users, expert warns
Telecom expert Parag Kar has warned that TRAI's proposed 80% capacity rule for 5G network slicing could harm ordinary users rather than protect them. TRAI's August 5 consultation paper says cells offering…
The Story in Brief
Telecom expert Parag Kar has warned that TRAI's proposed 80% capacity rule for 5G network slicing could harm ordinary users rather than protect them. TRAI's August 5 consultation paper says cells offering slicing must not exceed 80% Physical Resource Block utilisation, and operators must augment capacity or drop the cell if breached five times a month. Kar, a former Qualcomm vice president, argues that the 80% metric measures total radio use, not how capacity is shared between ordinary and premium users, so an operator could throttle ordinary traffic to keep the cell compliant while leaving genuine demand unserved. He suggests TRAI require a pre-slicing capacity test, before any premium traffic is introduced, to identify genuinely congested cells and force network upgrades upfront.
The Indian Opinion
TRAI's 80% rule sounds like a safety net for ordinary users, but the real risk is that telcos could throttle non-premium traffic to stay under the cap, as Medianama reports. The regulator measures total radio use, not how capacity is shared, leaving room for abuse. Before imposing this rule, TRAI must require a pre-slicing baseline test to expose genuine congestion. Without such a test, the 80% limit may simply encourage operators to suppress ordinary demand while claiming compliance.
Source: medianama.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
