India To Witness 100% 5G Coverage By December 2024, Says Ashwini Vaishnaw The communication minister had said that locally developed 4G and 5G technology stack has drawn interest from over 9 countries, making India a potential telecom technology exporter
By Teena Jose
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Communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Tuesday, has said that there will be 100% coverage of 5G in India by December 2024, according to a FE report.
"India's 5G is one of the fastest in the world. We had promised India will achieve 5G coverage across 200 cities and districts by March 31 in the phase one. As on today, India has covered 387 districts with 5G and 100,000 sites," said Vaishnaw in a statement referring to the Jio and Airtel 5G launch in 387 districts with deployment of 100,000 base transceivers.
The report further added that the reason for a faster pace of 5G coverage can be attributed to competition between the two telecom players for the market share, increased consumption of data with evolved technology use cases, and the easier right-of-way related permissions to lay telecom infrastructure.
"Today, 85% of the permissions to lay telecom towers are happening instantaneously. The average duration to approve (the telecom infra-related requests) is 7 days, which was earlier 200 days," Vaishnaw added.
Earlier this month, during the Economic Times Global Business Summit (GBS) 2023, the communication minister had said that locally developed 4G and 5G technology stack has drawn interest from over 9 countries, making India a potential telecom technology exporter. However as per reports, currently, about 18 countries have shown interest in India's 4G and 5G stack.
"There are at least nine or ten countries which want to try it out and it will be rolled out soon. I am very happy to share with all of you Prime Minister's vision of making India as a telecom technology exporter," Vaishnaw had reportedly said in a statement
Being asked on the timeline for the next reforms for the sector, Vaishnaw said the immediate target is to get the telecom bill passed in the coming monsoon session and that will lead to a major series of reforms in terms of spectrum, licences, and regulationS, stated the report while adding that government has also been focussing on implementing indigenous technology stack to rollout 4G and 5G services by BSNL.
According to recent reports, Akash Ambani at a post budget webinar of ministry of electronics and information technology has stated that Reliance Jio will undertake the fastest rollout of 5G in the world, while adding that 5G will transform healthcare services, education, agriculture and disaster management, making cities smart and societies safer.
