5G Rollout Should Be India’s National Priority: Mukesh Ambani At IMC 2021
NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries Limited Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani, speaking at the India Mobile Congress 2021, said that India must prioritise 5G rollout to boost connectivity across the country. He also stressed on the importance of quickly migrating Indians from 2G networks to 4G at the earliest while the industry prepares for the 5G revolution.
“India must complete the migration from 2G to 4G to 5G at the earliest. To keep millions of Indians at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid confined to 2G is to deprive them of the benefits of the digital revolution,” said Ambani.
Speaking around the theme-‘Connectivity for the next Decade’- Ambani said, “Roll-out of 5G should be India’s national priority.”
He further added, “At Jio, we are currently focused on 4G and 5G execution and broadband infrastructure expansion. We have developed a 100% home-grown and comprehensive 5G solution which is fully cloud native and digitally managed. Because of our converged, future-proof architecture, Jio’s network could be quickly and seamlessly upgraded from 4G to 5G.”
He also stressed on the aspect of affordability to expand digital inclusion. “We should not lose sight of the fact that affordability has been a critical driver of the phenomenally rapid expansion of the mobile subscriber base in India. India should move towards greater digital inclusion, and not greater digital exclusion,” he said.
Clarifying his stance on the key aspect of affordability, Ambani said, “Actually, India needs to ensure affordability not only of services, but also of devices and applications.”
“The best way of ensuring comprehensive affordability is nimble adoption of futuristic technologies and supportive policy tools like use of the USO fund for purposes other than services. USO funds can be used to subsidise devices to select target groups,” he said.
Along with 5G connectivity, he also said that fibre connectivity should be completed across India on “a mission mode”.