Telecom meet 3-yr 5G terget in 6 months.

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Telcos meet 3-yr 5G target in 6 months 

     Indian telecom operators have surpassed the three-year 5G network rollout target given to them within six months and now the government is making efforts to enhance adoption of 5G applications across various key segments,a senior government official said.

    Department of Telecom additional secretary V L Kantha Rao said at Mobile World Congress 2023 that the government has hosted over 50 companies at the Indian pavilion and the delegation is here to showcase indigenously-developed 4G and 5G technology stack

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         "When the spectrum was allocated to telecom service providers for 5G rollout,we gave a minimum rollout obligation saying that within one year they have to cover a few cities within three years,a few towns and so on and so forth.I am glad to say that in the first six months of 5G rollout, they have surpassed all the targets that we have given them for the next three years,"Rao said.

       "They have set up more than one lakh sites in 350 towns.They have even announced that by the end of this year they will cover the majority of the towns in the country.So this is a big plus for the rollout of 5G services in India ",Rao said.

      Both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have been rolling out a 5G network across the country.However,debt-ridden Vodafone Idea is awaiting fund raise post which it will infuse capital for rolling out 5G services.Telecom minister Ashwani Vaishnaw has said that state-owned BSNL will start 5G services by April 2024.

     Rao said that more than rolling out 5G services for consumers,it is very important that there is a rollout of 5G use cases for Industry, education, health, agriculture and all the other sectors because 5G is not just about faster video download or watching movies.

    "It is also about enterprise solutions .A lot of industries can ride on 5G.We have a set of 100 5G use cases documented and circulated to most of the stakeholders.We have been requesting ministries and private sector industry to adopt these 5G use cases.That is the next challenge and we are working very hard on that," Rao said.

     Talking about the developments at Mobile World Congress 2023,he said the fact that global telecom industry body GSMA has recognised India's leadership under the government leadership award shows the kind of public -private sector partnership happening in India.

    He said GSMA has recognised the way both the government and the industry are working together in developing telecom products in India to supply to the rest of the world.

    "The latest example is that the 5G stack is now fully developed in India ready to be deployed and ready to be exported to any part of the world.We have also developed an end-to-end 4G stack.We have tested it for about 1 million calls and recently upgraded to 10 million calls," Rao said.

      He said that global players are showing interest in partnering with Indian technology companies.