ET Explainer: What's a regulatory sandbox? How it spurs innovation
What's a regulatory sandbox?
A regulatory sandbox is a government-backed live testing environment where companies can safely experiment with new, untested telecom and tech products/services for a specific period. During such tests, companies will have access to live data and a limited number of subscribers to assess if the products are reliable and can be deployed at a mass level.
During such pre-launch live testing of products/services before a limited group of people, the government can, typically, relax the regulatory drill that companies would need to meet at a commercial launch of products/services for the wider market.
Why are regulatory sandboxes vital for developing 5G/6G technologies, use cases?
Development of 5G/6G use cases and tech, including AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) requires inter-sectoral and multi-stakeholder collaborations. A regulatory sandbox can provide a platform where telcos, gear makers, app developers, academics, scientists and regulators can work together, test and develop cutting-edge products that can be commercially successful in the mass market. Multiple central ministries, states, municipalities, smart city authorities can also participate in such sandboxing to test reliability and commercial viability of 5G/6G use cases, enterprise apps.
Why are sandboxes vital for tech startups and SMEs?
In a vibrant sandboxing environment, tech startups and SMEs can gain access to mentorship, funds, and technical resources to comprehensively test and develop compelling, commercially viable 5G/6G apps, use cases. This is vital as telecoms is a capital-intensive industry and failure to commercialise a product/service after testing can pose big financial challenges for
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