|HT|
Union communications and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday said the government is planning to roll out 5G services rapidly and expressed hope of a launch by October 12.
“We are planning to roll out 5G services rapidly, telecom operators are working in that regard & installations are being done. Hopefully, we should be launching 5G services by October 12 & then would further scale up in cities & towns,” the minister said.
“Our expectations are that 5G should reach in every part of the country in next two to three years. We'll ensure that it remains affordable. The industry is focusing on both urban as well as rural areas,” Vaishnaw added.
Vaishnaw has already asked the telecom service providers to be ready with the 5G launch post the issuance of spectrum allocation letters. For the first time, the Department of Telecom issued the spectrum assignment letters on the same day the successful bidders of radio waves made upfront payments.
During his Independence Day address from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the 5G services will be launched in India soon.
“Now we are stepping towards the era of 5G... won't have to wait for long. We are taking optical fibre to every village. I have full knowledge that the dream of Digital India will pass through villages.”
The DoT has received payment of around ₹17,876 crore from service providers -- Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Adani Data Networks and Vodafone Idea for the spectrum they won in a recent auction.
The country's biggest ever auction of telecom spectrum received a record ₹1.5 lakh crore worth of bids, with Mukesh Ambani's Jio cornering nearly half of all the airwaves sold with an ₹87,946.93 crore bid.
(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)