Times Now Summit 2022: 'By April 2023, 200 cities will be 5G enabled.' says Ashwini Vaishnaw

New Delhi: The Minister for Telecom and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, spoke at length about the Government's 5G roll out plans at the Times Now Summit 2022. He said, "India is one the only five countries in the World, where end-to-end telecom technology stack is available. We took some time but now we are a part of the niche club."

In India, Airtel and Jio have already started their 5G mobile services, with Jio offering unlimited data on an invite-only offer, while Airtel 5G is available for all Airtel subscribers but, is capped by data limits. The 5G coverage is still very sparse, limited only to Metros and a handful of Tier-1 cities. When asked about the 5G Roll plan, Vaishnaw said "If you see the 5G roll out in any country across the world it takes about 3-4 years for a complete rollout, we on the other hand have taken a very aggressive target of 2 years in which we should be able to cover at least 90% of the entire geographical area of India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 5G in India, at the 6th edition of the India Mobile Congress (IMC). Reliance Jio and other telecom companies demonstrated the different use cases of 5G to Modi and even confirmed some important details regarding its rollout. "The rollout is in full swing, 2500 5G towers are being deployed every week, and by March, April 200 cities will be 5G enabled," Vaishnaw noted.

According to DoT, the 5G connectivity will spread to PAN India within 2 to 3 years at "affordable" prices. As per the 5G rollout plan shared by Reliance Jio, the Mukesh Ambani-headed telecom company is aiming to roll out the services around India by December 2023. Airtel is also aiming to provide 5G services in all key metro cities by the end of 2022 and PAN India by December 2024.

5G is the fifth generation of technology standard for broadband mobile networks. The 5G connectivity will offer a faster internet experience, interpreted calling, and improve both public and commercial sectors. It is also expected to boost the digital wave in the country and uplift education, healthcare, and agriculture, along with infrastructure and logistics.