India will have affordable, world-class 5G services: Telecom Minister

India will provide affordable and world-class 5G services to the people, Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.

Vaishnaw on Thursday released RoW rules amendment and launched 5G RoW application form on GatiShakti Sanchar Portal.

Addressing a press conference, the Union Minister said, "Industry has started hiring for 5G infrastructure and within 2-3 years 5G services will reach every part of the country. We have requested the industry to make 5G charges affordable. Our mobile services charges are the lowest in the world. We will get world-class 5G services."

Vaishnaw said that all the steps needed for the very rapid rollout of 5G are moving forward in a very nice and systematic way.

"As all of you are aware the spectrum auction was successfully concluded. The letters for harmonization frequency allocation have been issued well in time and simultaneously we have all been working for simplifying the right of way and installation processes," he said.

Vaishnaw said that 5G infrastructure would be developed in a very integrated way. He said that all the major infrastructure ministries like Railways and Highways have joined the common portal.

"Anybody who wants to install a tower, install a pole or lay fibre, they can apply on one common portal and a very simplified process has been created. Due to the reforms in the telecom sector the average time required to set up telecom infrastructure which was used to be 343 days, now that has come down to 16 days. That is the impact of the reforms and we are committed to doing similar reforms," he stated.

He said the entire industry is today excited to roll out 5G very quickly, not only in cities but also in the urban and rural areas throughout the country.

"We are getting the feedback from the industry stakeholders that a lot of good work is happening. We hope that in the coming few weeks, we should be ready to launch 5G and in the coming few years, the entire country should get good high quality 5G coverage," the Minister added.

Last week, the government issued spectrum allocation letters to telecom service providers while asking them to prepare for the rollout of 5G services in the country.With the spectrum allotment, India has entered the final stage of rolling out high-speed 5G telecom services.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day, said India's "techade" is here as the government is focusing on technologies such as 5G, semiconductor manufacturing and optical fibre cables.

These technologies, PM Modi said, will bring about a revolution at the grassroots level.

"India's techade is here! With 5G, semiconductor manufacturing and OFCs in villages, we are bringing a revolution through Digital India to the grassroots level," he said at Red Fort.

5G is the fifth-generation mobile network capable of transmitting a large set of data at a very rapid speed.In comparison to 3G and 4G, 5G has a very low latency which will enhance user experiences in various sectors. Low latency describes the efficiency to process a very high volume of data messages with a minimal delay.

The 5G rollout is also expected to bring more development in remote data monitoring in sectors such as mining, warehousing, telemedicine, and manufacturing, among others.Reliance Jio, Adani group, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea were the four major participants in the spectrum auction.

Department of Telecom received total bids worth Rs 1.50 lakh crore from the recently concluded auction.5G services are expected to be about 10 times faster than 4G.

( With inputs from ANI )