The top executives of Indian telecom operators Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have expressed their opinions, calling on the government to treat telecom as an "essential service" and to provide affordable airwaves. Executives from these companies, including Department of Telecommunications Secretary Neeraj Mittal, addressed the audience at the second edition of the ETTelecom 5G Innovation Summit 2025.
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Jio Highlights India's Mobile Technology Gap
Reliance Jio stated on Friday that India faces a mobile technology generational gap, not a digital divide, reiterating its case for upgrading 2G users to modern networks. "Rural consumers in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra consume more data than consumers in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. The rural user has better devices, more consumption, and more time spent (on the internet)," Shyam P Mardikar, President and Group CTO Mobility at Reliance Jio Infocomm, was quoted as saying.
"Our divide is the customer's inability to connect to the digital ecosystem. One of the biggest divides we are talking about is the (mobile technology) generational gap," Mardikar added.
According to Mardikar, 20 percent of India's population is not yet fully digitised. "It is unfair not to pull them on the digital highway, because with 2G, the payments, streaming, telemedicine, and other applications are not possible," he reportedly said.
"We are making these people divide. It is this kind of digital divide where we have three or four generations of gap," Mardikar continued, noting that telecom subscribers using 2G – or basic keypad phones – are unable to realise the benefits of the digital future to improve their lives.
In pursuit of its "2G-mukt Bharat" (2G-free India) vision, Jio launched its ultra-affordable 4G keypad phone series, JioBharat, in 2023. Since then, the lineup has been regularly updated with features such as UPI payments, YouTube streaming support, and select Jio services, the report highlighted.
Mardikar contended that, despite a relatively smaller base than China Mobile's, Jio users "speak more and consume more data". "So half of our customers actually consume more than what their 900 million people do," he said, as mentioned in the report.
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Bharti Airtel Emphasizes AI-Driven 5G Evolution
Bharti Airtel, meanwhile, highlighted that the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) adoption has placed telecom at the center of technological schemes and will drive the emergence of more 5G services.
"Telecom will come back into an even more important role in day-to-day functions to make AI work seamlessly. Telecom will be at the center of it," Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Bharti Airtel, was quoted as saying.
Sekhon reportedly said high-performing telecom networks will become a "must-have" as "essential life-saving applications" using AI will be running on top of them. This will also require low-latency, high-bandwidth, quick-performing network resources and edge cloud, he added.
"Good news is, we are packing games with AI. Finally, we will see some use cases of 5G which are beyond faster speed and high-speed downloads. We will see slicing, low-latency, and faster network resource management applications," Airtel's technology chief reportedly said.
According to Airtel, AI agents—autonomous software capable of running systems and services with minimal human intervention—are driving efficiency in network orchestration and automation, leading to improved operations.
"AI is impacting our telecom operations. I can already see faster detection and faster self-healing. The telecom industry needs to ensure that we use AI for everything from design, operations, and (user) experience," Sekhon reportedly said.
He added that AI can make tower operations more efficient, despite the industry's densification initiatives to meet rising data demand. "At Airtel, we have an AI-based model with which we manage the telecom capacity round-the-clock. We shut down excess capacity when there is no need, and in a few milliseconds, we can bring the capacity back as and when there is a need."
Sekhon also said AI helps with anomaly prediction and detection at scale, enabling telecom companies to manage nationwide networks seamlessly.
He noted that the AI industry has shifted from focusing on model training to driving inferencing use cases, such as live translation in smart glasses, cameras detecting defects in real time, and driver drowsiness detection in smart vehicles. "Soon, in many cases, inferencing will be needed. So, probably training data centers, maybe in the US and elsewhere, will convert into distributed data centers, and these distributed data centers will need to be closer to the application. This will change the way you and I build telecom networks."
Government Focus on 5G Adoption and Innovation
From the government side, a senior DoT official at the event said that despite rapid nationwide rollout of 5G technology, more efforts are needed to drive its adoption across sectors.
"Much as we can take pride in achievements, there is a long way to go in terms of what we need to do as we move forward. There is much to do in the adoption of 5G across sectors," Neeraj Mittal, Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications, was quoted as saying.
Mittal, however, noted that global telecom carriers are also struggling to drive the uptake of 5G-driven services, noting that most of present use cases only utilise high-speed characteristic of the latest generation technology. "If you can do low-latency, and do it reliably at scale, we will have use cases like telemedicine. The government really tried hard by launching the indigenous 5G testbeds, by rolling out 5G use case labs across the country," he reportedly said.
According to him, the test labs have already produced 130 research publications and developed 95-plus innovative solutions based on 5G. "It is incumbent upon both the OEMs to supply 5G (equipment), plus the telecom service providers to support such startups and solutions which can improve the lives of people and justify the massive investments that have been made in the 5G networks," Mittal reportedly added.
Bharat 6G Alliance
He also highlighted government support for the homegrown ecosystem via the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) and Bharat 6G Alliance. The Bharat 6G Alliance—a collaborative platform comprising academia, startups, and industry—is contributing to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), showcasing India's global prowess.
India's Push for 6G
"In the context of difficult geopolitical dilemmas, we have signed alliances with the UK, US, EU, Korea, Japan, Brazil, for research in 6G. Around 111 advanced R&D projects have been approved. Two national test beds: a terahertz and an advanced optical test bed for 6G have also been sanctioned," Mittal reportedly said.
As per the top official, India aims to secure a 10 percent share of the global 6G patent pool. He added that the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme has catalysed indigenous telecom equipment manufacturing, with India having achieved self-reliance in several gear categories.
"It is important to note that we can manufacture telecom equipment in India, and thanks to the PLI, we have succeeded to a large extent. There has been an increase of about 7x in sales in 2024-25 compared to 2019-20," Mittal reportedly said.
India, according to Mittal, has achieved a healthy level of self-sufficiency in LTE-RAN (radio access network)-based solutions, 5G massive MIMO, and consumer premises equipment (CPE), among others.
"Several Indian companies are exporting these products. These create jobs, support downstream and upstream ecosystems, and help us grow towards, as the Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, 'Viksit Bharat' (developed India), by 2047," Mittal added.
Telecom as an Essential Service
Both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have urged the government to treat telecom as an essential service. This followed DoT Secretary Neeraj Mittal's statement that the government awaits industry recommendations for next-generation reforms to unleash telecom’s potential.
Shyam P Mardikar said telecom has become more essential than electricity, yet the industry was jointly fighting for deploying connectivity infrastructure at airports, highway tunnels, malls, and other places.
"The secretary mentioned that we have one of the most economical and cheapest revenue models. From a consumer affordability perspective, the state-of-the-art equipment and the cost of the spectrum, we need willingness in infrastructure agencies for connectivity," Mardikar reportedly added. "We need to really start using telecom as an essential infrastructure."
As per the report, Randeep Sekhon echoed similar views: "I want to underscore making telecom an essential service, and giving it ubiquitous access in buildings, airports, tunnels, and big metro stations."
Sekhon added that telecom carriers are hamstrung by agencies into paying "top dollars" to provide an essential service like telecom. "In my mind, the way we give ubiquitous access to power and safety, we should provide ubiquitous access to telecom."
Airtel's CTO reportedly emphasised that the industry is not shying away from investment, but demanded ubiquitous access to ensure that telcos can provide "top-notch" services in all infrastructures nationwide. "Telecom should be treated as an essential service, not an afterthought. I hope that we can do our bit, and infrastructure builders can do their bit."
Under the Telecommunication Act, 2023, and RoW Rules, a public authority cannot deny providing the Right of Way to telecom operators in a public place.
The DoT Secretary reportedly assured that the government would consider industry recommendations to remove obstacles and support telecom sector growth.
