5G roll out likely in a month: Centre

The country is likely to witness the roll out of the much awaited high speed 5G mobile services in about a month's time.

"In about a month, 5G mobile services will roll out in the country, which will have multiplier effects on the development of all sectors. A 6G Technology Innovations Group, has also been set up, which is working towards the development of indigenous 6G stack," said Devusinh Chauhan, Minister of State for Communications, while addressing the inaugural event of International Telecommunication Union's Regional Standardisation Forum (RSF) for Asia and Oceania region on Monday.

He said that the government is promoting the indigenously designed, developed and manufactured advanced telecom technology, and as a result, India today has a strong home-grown 5G mobile communications ecosystem.

"By the end of this year, we are likely to see indigenously developed, and manufactured 5G stack, getting deployed, in rolling out 5G network in India. Our engineers have developed a set of 5G standards, which will facilitate the spread of the 5G network in rural areas," he said.

Talking about the Centre's initiatives to address the issues concerning digital divide, the minister said that the steps include taking optical fibers to all 6 lakh villages of the country, and also cover all these villages with 4G mobile communications.

He informed that around 1,75,000 villages are already provided with the optical fibre, while around 5,60,000 villages have 4G mobile facilities. A multi-billion-dollar, comprehensive plan has been made, which will ensure optical fibre and mobile communications in all six hundred thousand villages by 2025.

Talking about the positive, and forward-looking environment created by telecom reforms in the country, the Minister said: "As a result, the recent 5G spectrum auction in India has fetched bids of 20 billion dollars. This very well reflects the confidence and sentiments of the Indian telecom industry." - IANS