World Telecommunication Day: India Achieves 99 Percent 4G Coverage With Over 6 Lakh Villages

The Ministry of Communications has highlighted the country’s developments in the telecommunications sector, which include strategic partnerships with partner countries and telecom chip companies, exchange of best practices, creating new opportunities, increasing telecom exports, securing Indian interests, and leadership positions in international forums, transforming India Mobile Congress (IMC), tapping specialised knowledge, and academic and research collaborations.

Fueling this progress are strategic international collaborations, particularly with the USA, driving initiatives like OpenRAN adoption and facilitating access to telecom chips for startups. These partnerships also foster dialogue on spectrum allocation and quality of service assurance, enhancing India’s telecom ecosystem.

The Ministry noted that the gap between imports and exports has decreased in recent years. Most of the 5G demands are being met by Made in India products. Indian companies exported Rs 25,200 crores worth of telecom equipment and accessories last year. The DoT has made concerted efforts to help domestic companies showcase their products domestically in all foreign fora so that they can be exported.

Furthermore, the ministry stated that India, through the Bharat 6G Alliance, is entering into a Memorandum of Understanding with the NextG Alliance of ATIS, USA, and the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G-IA) of the EU to explore collaboration opportunities on 6G wireless technologies, support a common 6G vision, and create secure and trusted telecommunications as well as resilient supply chains.

“World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly (WTSA) is being held in October 2024 for the first time in India, with over 2000 delegates from 180 countries participating to decide the future direction of standards for the next generation of telecommunication systems,” the Ministry said.