Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In a rare feat, as the Indian telecommunication companies have surpassed the three-year 5-G rollout target given to them within six months, the government is all set to enhance the adoption of 5-G applications across various key segments in India.
According to the media reports, quoting VL Kantha Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of Telecom, after allotting the spectrum to telecom service providers for 5-G rollout, the government gave them a minimum rollout obligation for three years. “I’m glad to say that in the first six months of the 5-G rollout, they have surpassed all the targets that we have given them for the next three years.”
He said the rapid rollout of the 5G network in India shows that telecom service providers in India have seen the opportunity of 5-G.
“They have set up over 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 5-G services in India.”
Both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have been rolling out a 5-G network across the country. But debt-ridden Vodafone Idea is awaiting fundraising to infuse capital for rolling out 5-G services.
State-owned BSNL will start 5-G services by April 2024.
Rao said that more than rolling out 5-G services for consumers, it is very important that there is a rollout of 5-G use cases for industry, education, health, agriculture, and all the other sectors because 5-G is not just about faster video downloads or watching movies.
“It is also about enterprise solutions. A lot of industries can ride on 5-G. We have a set of 100 5-G use cases documented and circulated to most of the stakeholders. We have been requesting ministries and the private sector industry to adopt these 5-G use cases. That is the next challenge and we are working very hard on that,” Rao added.