Modi to launch 5G telecom services in India today

NEW DELHI: The Fifth Generation or 5G services will be a reality in India soon as the government on Friday confirmed officially that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch 5G services on Saturday in the national capital.

The government also said that the 5G technology will provide a lot of facilities to mobile users such as seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency, and highly reliable communications among others. Besides, it will also increase energy efficiency, spectrum efficiency and network efficiency as well.

However, sources close to development said that Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio and Ariel are expected to take the lead in the race followed by Vodafone Idea (Vi), and will announce their respective launch dates on the same day as well. “Even Vi on today partnered with CareGame — the Paris-based gaming technology company, to offer 5G cloud gaming experience to its users at IMC 2022,” the sources added.

The launch of 5G services pan-India in the country, the world’s second-biggest smartphone market after China, follows years of intense preparation by the government. “The 5G launch will progressively cover the entire country over the next couple of years. The cumulative economic impact of 5G on India is estimated to reach $450 billion by 2035,” the government said in its official release.

Apart from the mega launch of 5G services, Modi will also inaugurate the sixth edition of the Indian Mobile Congress (IMC). The IMC 2022 is scheduled to be held from October 1- October 4 with the theme of “New digital Universe” which will bring together thinkers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and government officials to discuss and showcase unique opportunities emerging from the rapid adoption and spread of digital technology,” the PMO statement said.

However, the ministry of communications in a separate statement said the 5G can unleash new economic opportunities and societal benefits giving it the potential for being a transformational force for Indian society. “It will help the country leapfrog the traditional barriers to development, spur innovations by startups and business enterprises as well as advance the ‘Digital India’ vision,” it said.

In a bid to facilitate the service providers, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has also amended Right of Way (RoW) Rules 2016 in August 2022, wherein the charges for RoW permissions have been made reasonable and a ceiling for RoW charges for installation of 5G small cells and optical fibre cable on street furniture has been fixed.

Recently, 5G spectrum auctions were conducted successfully and 51,236 MHz was allocated to telecom service providers with a gross revenue of Rs 1,50,173 crore. The auction aggregated the demand for a robust 5G ecosystem that can cater to its use cases involving IoT, M2M, AI, Edge Computing, Robotics etc,”  the ministry said.