Warning! — Digital Transformation Ahead

A new book by Rohit Prasad and V Sridhar, 5G and Beyond: Rewiring Telecom Regulation (2026) contains proposals for an overall re-examination of the global approach to telecom regulation. Their thesis is that 5G deployment is reaching completion and attention is shifting to 6G roll-out, but the ongoing need for investment is being jeopardised by developments such as the power of Big Tech firms, the elongation of the value chain, and the strain put on networks by the exponential growth of content and applications. The authors claim to have developed several new regulatory concepts such as ‘diagonal equity’ (equal treatment of telecom providers and over-the-top digital platforms (OTTs) and applications providers) and ‘digital neutrality’ (OTTs should contribute a percentage of their revenues as a broadband infrastructure levy (BIL) in order to fund network enhancements), that represent significant departures from the past and are ‘intended to stimulate debate’ and ‘unleash the full potential of the digital economy’. Although these are not genuinely new concepts and they are explored insufficiently to establish firm proposals with prima facie evidence, there is the kernel of an idea that might yet lead to the digital transformation that the authors so obviously care about.