Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said there was a requirement of policy measures for the early roll out of the fifth generation (5G) connectivity technology.
Addressing the inaugural session of India Mobile Congress (IMC), Ambani said Reliance Jio will pioneer India's '5G Revolution' in the second half of 2021.
He noted that India was among the best digitally-connected nations in the world right now.
"In order to maintain this lead, policy steps are needed to accelerate early rollout of 5G, and to make it affordable and available everywhere," the RIL Chairman said.
He said that Jio's 5G services will be powered by indigenous-developed network, hardware and technology components, adding that Jio's 5G operations "will be a testimony to your inspiring vision of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' or a self-reliant India.
He exuded confidence that the much-anticipated 5G will enable India to lead the "fourth industrial revolution" globally.
"Jio Platforms, with its family of over 20 start-up partners, has built world-class capabilities in Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Machine Learning, Internet of Things, Blockchain, etc. We are creating compelling home-grown solutions in education, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure, financial services and new commerce," Ambani said.
He said Jio will offer these solutions and services to the rest of the world to address global challenges, after they are proven in India.
The RIL Chairman who caused a ripple in India's telecom industry with the introduction of low-cost 4G services with Jio reiterated his stand that 2G should be phased out with a view to provide more benefits to all telecom users, including the low-income groups.
"As many as 300 million mobile subscribers in India are still trapped in the 2G era. Urgent policy steps are needed to ensure that these underprivileged people have an affordable smartphone so that they too can benefit from Direct Benefit Transfer into their bank accounts, and actively participate in the digital economy."
