PM Modi likely to launch 5G services at IMC inauguration ceremony

The launch of 5G services by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now take place on September 29 and not on Independence Day as planned earlier. The launch will coincide with the opening ceremony of the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022.

Sources close to the development said Activity area that the decision to miss Independence Day for the commercial launch of the services is due to the fact that the telecommunications service providers (TSPs) and their suppliers would need more time to be fully equipped, so that they can at least start the services in a few cities to start with.

September 29 will be the first day of IMC and the Prime Minister is likely to commercially launch 5G services, where all telecom operators and their suppliers will showcase 5G technology. There will also be global players at the three-day event to be held from September 29 to October 1 at Pragati Maidan, a senior government official told BusinessLine.

According to another source, there is no plan for an August 15 launch at Fort Rouge, and there could only be a mention of the merits of 5G technology and successful telecom spectrum auctions by governments in his speech.

5G test bed
The Prime Minister has already inaugurated the country’s first 5G test bed on May 17, which would allow start-ups and industry players to test and validate their products locally and reduce dependency on foreign facilities. Led by IIT-Madras, the 5G testbed was developed as a multi-institute collaborative project by eight institutes.

According to Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, the rollout of 5G will start from August to September and will start in 20 to 25 cities and towns by the end of this year. He had indicated that India, with its current data prices well below the global average, would continue to set benchmark rates as new services were rolled out.

In a bid to roll out the services at the earliest, the government also completed the spectrum harmonization process in a single day on Wednesday, paving the way for streamlining the holdings of TSPs in a particular band for greater efficiency.

The Committee of Secretaries has already approved the auction process, and the spectrum harmonization, which previously took months, was completed in a single day (Wednesday), Vaishnaw said.

Just as we successfully completed the auction, we expect to complete the full allocation of spectrum to TSPs by August 10; hopefully they’ll be able to get their equipment up to maximum level by October, and we should be able to launch 5G services in September-October, he said.

India is also developing its own 5G stack, and the global community is keen to have a good reliable and affordable technology source for telecommunications, as telecommunications is the major consumption point for all digital services. Also, the government hopes to export the 5G stack to other developing countries. Exbulletin