PM Modi launched the 5G telephony services

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022 exhibition ahead of the formal launch of 5G mobile telephony services in India and experienced several 5G use cases first-hand here, along with driving a car remotely and enjoying augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) via wearable devices.

The 5G telephony services in the country, ushering in an era of ultra high-speed internet on mobile phones. The Prime Minister launched the 5G services in select cities at the IMC 2022 conference. The services will progressively cover the entire country over the next couple of years.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Telecom Minister said, India will soon emerge as the leader in the 5G technology space. In his address at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022 exhibition – Vaishnaw said ,it would be marked in history of telecom in golden letters. The new technology is expected to provide seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency and highly reliable communications.

5G marks the dawn of a new era and presents a sea of opportunities,” he said. While the nation was dependent on foreign countries for technology for 2G, 3G and 4G telecom services, India has created history with 5G, he said. He further said, India will soon emerge as a leader in 5G technology and added that the telecom industry has become a “sunrise sector” with radical reforms and regulatory certainty.

“With the recent structural and other reforms, the time for getting approvals to telecom industry has come down to seven days from earlier 300 days. We are focussed on technology development, especially telecom equipment and services ‘Make in India’,” he said.

The minister said many projects including last mile connectivity, laying of fiber, and BSNL’s revival package have been recently approved by the government which will ensure telecom services reach every nook and corner of the country.

After inaugurating the exhibition at Pragati Maidan here, Modi went around pavilions set up by different telecom operators and technology providers to get a first-hand experience of what 5G can do.

He started with Reliance Jio’s stalls, where he witnessed the ‘True 5G’ devices displayed and experienced the use case through Jio Glass. Flanked by Telecom Vaishnaw and billionaires Ambani, Bharti Mittal, Mangalam Birla of Vodafone Idea, he spent time understanding the indigenous development of end-to-end 5G technology. He thereafter visited stalls of Airtel, Vodafone Idea, C-DOT and others.

5G will open new avenues for each sector from manufacturing, healthcare, and augmented entertainment to even smart city projects by integrating with new-age technologies like IoT, M2M learning, drones, AI, and big data analytics.says, Lt Gen Dr SP Kochhar, DG, COAI

PM Modi visited several 5G pavilions and encouraged domestic startups to build 5G use cases. At Swedish telecommunication giant Ericsson's booth, Modi drove a car in Sweden via a 5G-enabled solution.

He also visited a booth of a consortium of nearly 100 domestic startups working towards developing 5G solutions to solve India's real-time problems across health care, education, disaster management etc. At the Jio Pavilion, Modi witnessed the true 5G devices displayed at the pavilion and experienced the use cases through Jio Glass.