India Mobile Congress 2023: India will lead the world in 6G, says PM Modi
Even as 5G, 6G, Indian-made phones and the role of the technological revolution in bringing social justice dominated the seventh edition of the country’s premier telecom summit ‘India Mobile Congress’, satellite communications managed to grab some of the attention to steal. At Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, where G20 leaders were invited last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a packed audience on Friday morning that India will be the world leader in 6G technology. After the fastest rollout of 5G technology in India, the government is now working to become a leader in 6G, the Prime Minister said to loud cheers from the crowd comprising industry honchos, bureaucrats and others.
Sharing the stage with the Prime Minister were Reliance Jio Chairman Akash Ambani, Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal and Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, who is on the board of Vodafone Idea. Sticking to the 5G theme, talking about their expansion plans, the two largest telecom companies – Jio and Airtel – made big announcements in satellite telecom, an area that has been in the news due to uncertainty over the spectrum allocation method.
Mittal said Bharti Airtel-backed Eutelsat OneWeb satellite communications service will be available in India from next month. He said the company had established its ground station at Mehsana, Gujarat. Akash Ambani, who made his debut at the India Mobile Congress, showcased the JioSpaceFiber technology to the Prime Minister. The company on Friday announced JioSpaceFiber as India’s first satellite-based giga fiber service that delivers high-speed broadband to previously inaccessible areas in the country. Jio’s venture with a Luxembourg-based satellite telecom network provider is likely to unleash stiff competition with Bharti Airtel’s OneWeb.
However, the Prime Minister did not discuss satellite telecommunications as he continued to focus on the core areas of the sector. “In 5G, we spanned from rollout to reach-to-stage,” he said. Within a year of the rollout, 400,000 5G base stations have been set up in India. “Not just with 5G, we are also on track to become a leader in the 6G space.”
Modi highlighted that unlike in 2014 when India was a net importer of mobile phones, today the country is the second largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. He added that the country also produces electronic goods worth Rs 2 trillion for export. “Today we are all proud that the entire world is using ‘Made in India’ phones,” he said, adding that the need of the hour is to take forward the success in mobile phones and electronics and create a establish a strong semiconductor manufacturing sector in the country.
Noting that India is fortunate to have its young generation leading the country’s technological revolution, he said that in terms of broadband speed, India’s ranking has risen from 118 to 43. He also said that the speed and availability of connectivity have a huge impact on the social and economic situation in the country. Therefore, the Center’s top priority is to provide access to capital, resources and technology. The Center is also focusing on democratizing technology, he said. “To me this is the greatest social justice…. The more we use technology, the closer we get to becoming a developed country.”
At the event, Modi also presented the award of “5G Lab” to 100 institutions. Earlier at the event, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India is emerging as a developer, exporter and leader of telecom technology. Telecom is the gateway to digital, Vaishnaw said, citing the rapid rollout of 5G services in India and the country’s clear 6G vision.
Committed to 5G
Akash Ambani said that India’s 5G rollout has been the fastest and promised to further expand 5G connectivity.
Jio had installed 85 percent of the 5G cells in the country, he added. “By deploying a 5G cell every 10 seconds, Jio has installed over 1 million 5G cells across all 22 circles of India,” he said.
Mittal said 5,000 cities and 20,000 villages are already covered by Airtel’s 5G network and vowed to fulfill his earlier promise to complete the nationwide rollout by March 2024. He emphasized that India is becoming a global leader in the production of digital technology.
Birla spoke about Vodafone Idea developing a range of 5G use cases across various sectors such as agri, infrastructure, automotive and logistics, among others. While the company has yet to start offering commercial 5G services, the company would invest significantly to complete the rollout of 5G services and expand 4G services, he said.
Showcasing its state-of-the-art AI-powered self-optimized network, Bharti Airtel drew the Prime Minister’s attention to Airtel’s LEO satellite constellation.