Ashwini Vaishnaw, the telecom and information technology minister of India, has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to come up with a consultation paper to try and improve the quality of service by three to four times of what it is presently. The telecom operators have been provided with a series of reforms to help improve the health of the sector as well as their business. Looking at that, Vaishnaw said that telcos and the stakeholders together will have to improve the quality of service significantly now, reports ET Telecom.
Vaishnaw was speaking at the Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) event on 'Gati Shakti Vision for 5G and Beyond'. In addition to this, the minister said that the draft for the new telecom bill would be up for public consultation in a week. With this new bill, the right of way (RoW) rules released earlier this year will get some backing.
Vaishnaw added that as part of the railway land lease policy announced by Prime Minister Modi, the internet service provider (ISP) or the telco would have to pay a fixed charge of Rs 1,000 whenever optic fiber cable (OFC) crosses a railway line instead of the current land value of the area.
One of the biggest statements made by Vaishnaw during the event was around 5G coverage. As per him, while other countries took multiple years with 5G to even reach 40% to 50% coverage, India would get to 80% coverage in a short time. It could be right as Jio and Airtel both want to provide 5G in almost all parts of India as soon as 2024. Jio has said that it would launch 5G in four cities next month, while Airtel is also expected to launch 5G somewhere in October 2022 only. The government has been modifying existing policies to aid with the 5G rollout.
