Ambani, Mittal differ on 5G rollout timeline – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The chiefs of Indian telecom giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel spoke in different voices over rollout of 5G in India, with Mukesh Ambani seeing a possibility by the end of next year, while Sunil Mittal — the man who made the earliest bet on the telecom sector in the 1990s — saying that the new telephony tech will become a norm in mobile broadband only over two-to-three years.
Speaking at the opening session of the India Mobile Congress (held virtually online) ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inaugural address, Ambani pitched for indigenous development of 5G technology, though Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal termed indigenous development as an “existential threat”, which could “lock India out of global ecosystem”.

Ambani, whose company Reliance Jio has raced to the top position in the telecom sector in a short span of four years after beginning services in September 2016, said that India is one of the largest digitallyconnected societies, and needs to upgrade to faster technologies to move further ahead in speed and experiences.
“It (5G) will be powered by indigenously developed network, hardware and technology components. Jio’s 5G service will be a testimony to your inspiring vision of Atma-Nirbhar Bharat,” Ambani said..
Ambani also took a swipe at his rivals Airtel and Vodafone Idea who still offer 2G mobile services in the country against Jio’s 4G-only operations. “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.”
Mittal, who spoke after Ambani, had a different take as he said the next-generation 5G would start to become the norm in the mobile broadband space only over two-to-three years.
Vittal said rather being local in approach to handle 5G, India should follow global standards. Development of a separate 5G standard will impact innovation, he said. The government, while speaking about the need for 5G, is still to give concrete dates for the auction of 5G spectrum.
C P Gurnani, the chief executive of Tech Mahindra, said telecom has proven to be the backbone of the Indian industry during the corona pandemic and technologies such as 5G is now a reality in many parts of the world.