DoT to unveil 5G roadmap by June 2018: Aruna Sundararajan

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to unveil the 5G or fifth-generation roadmap by the end of the June this year and take lead in technology as well as used cases, said Aruna Sundarajan, Chairperson, Telecom Commission & Secretary (T) in New Delhi today.
 
"The DoT has received good inputs on 5G in the new telecom policy or NTP 2018 which is yet to be unveiled. The draft of the NTP 2018 is in final stages and will be put in public soon. By the end of the financial year, there will be pan India 4G network rollout," said Aruna Sundarajan, while inaugurating an ASSOCHAM summit on Connected Devices-Connected World conference.
 
She said the networks are not only accelerating the roll out of the 4G but are getting ready for 5G, adding that India will have full 4G coverage by the end of the next financial year.
 
On the call drop issue, DoT secretary said Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has brought new regulatory regime under which there are stringent norms for call drops that need to be followed by telecos.
 
About in-flight connectivity, Sundarajan said, we are moving towards getting approvals for in-flight connectivity but cannot give any time frame for the final approval, however, the discussions are on right track.
 
India is going to beat all the estimations. It was thought that India is primarily a voice driven market, but the way data is growing is taking everyone by surprise. The data growth is not just in urban markets but in the deep rural, said the telecom secretary.
 
"I expect that by the end of the next financial year, we will have pan India 4G coverage barring a few pockets. The right regulatory framework is the key to create an enabling environment for connected devices," she said.
 
"The telecom networks have undergone fundamental change because we have very rapidly moved from predominant era of 2G and 3G to an era of 4G," she said, adding "The government is also framing the conducive environment by looking into all the policies and removing bottlenecks for ensuring the digitisation of the country at the earliest."