5G services to be rolled out from Oct.: Minister
- Union Communications Minister said that 5G telecom services will be available from October and industry would decide on pricing structure.
Highlights of the speech
- 5G roll-out will start in October, and within a year or so, we will have a good roll-out of 5G in the country.
- In case of high pricing of 5G services, government would intervene and BSNL, which would roll out 5G , would act as market balancer.
- At global level cost of 5G services is ₹2,400 per month, while it is around ₹200 a month in India.
- Data cost is the lowest in India.
On recent reforms
- Recent reforms in telecom sector have resulted in good stability in the industry.
- Volumes are huge in this industry so it has been able to sustain a higher level of debt.
- Most of the issues, such as liabilities on balance sheets due to adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and spectrum issues, had been addressed by the reforms of 2021.
- PLI (production linked incentive) scheme for telecom sector had fetched good response.
- New legal structure for telecom sector was being put in place towards ease of doing business.
Prelims take away
- Telecom sector in India
- 5G service
- PLI (production linked incentive) scheme