Need urgent policy reforms for accelerated 5G rollout, says Mukesh Ambani
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said that the group’s telecom arm Jio is ready to pioneer the 5G revolution in the second half of 2021 and called upon the government to take urgent policy steps for accelerated rollout and affordable prices.
Ambani, who had in July announced the development of an in-house 5G solution and readiness for trials, made these remarks during the inauguration of the Indian Mobile Congress.
“Jio will pioneer the 5G revolution in India in the second half of 2021. It will be powered by indegeniously developed network, hardware and technology components,” Ambani said.
The government, however, is yet to take a decision on the 5G spectrum. Spectrum for trials too, has not been given. Development of 5G enabled handsets also remains an issue.
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Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said India will be ready to receive benefits of investments in the 5G ecosystem over the next 2-3 years as the price of equipment falls and mobile devices become available in large numbers.
“I am particularly excited about the upcoming 5G which in the next 2-3 years should start to become the norm in mobile broadband space,” Mittal said.
Jio and Airtel compete in India’s price sensitive wireless telecom sector. While Mittal’s Airtel offers service in all 2G, 3G and 4G services, Jio offers only 4G service.
“As many as 300 million mobile subscribers in India are still trapped in the 2G era. Urgent policy steps are needed to ensure that these underprivileged people have an affordable smartphone, so that they too, can benefit from direct benefit transfer into their bank accounts, and actively participate in the digital economy,” Ambani said in his address.
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