NEW DELHI, 1 Oct: Reliance Jio, the nation’s biggest telecom firm, will expand 5G telephony services offering ultra high-speed internet connectivity to every part of the country by December 2023, its chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Saturday.
Jio had in September 2016 made an entry into the telecom sector, offering free voice calls and dirt-cheap data, forcing the competition to either match or fold up/consolidate.
Ambani has now promised affordable 5G services.
“Today, I want to reiterate Jio’s commitment to deliver 5G to every town, every taluka, and every tehsil of our country by December 2023,” he said at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) conference here.
Ambani had at his flagship Reliance Industries Ltd’s annual shareholder meeting in August announced the rollout of 5G services across multiple key cities, including metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, by Diwali.
“Most of Jio’s 5G is developed in India, and hence carries the stamp of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’,” he said, adding that 5G and 5G-enabled digital solutions can bring affordable and high-quality education and skill development within the reach of common Indians.
It can deliver high-quality healthcare to rural and remote areas by turning existing hospitals into smart hospitals without much additional investment, making the services of the best doctors digitally available anywhere in India, as well as improving the speed and accuracy of diagnostics and enabling real-time clinical decision making.
“5G can also bridge the gap between urban and rural India by accelerating digitisation and intelligent data management of agriculture, services, trade, industry, informal sector, transportation and energy infrastructure,” Ambani said.
He said that, by harnessing the combined power of demography and digital technologies, India can become the world’s leading digital society, accelerating growth by making the country a USD 40 trillion economy by 2047, up from USD 3 trillion now, and increasing per capita income rapidly to over USD 20,000, from USD 2,000.
“It will not be an exaggeration to say that 5G is like a Digital Kamadhenu, the heavenly cow that grants whatever we desire,” he said.
With 5G, India will take longer and faster strides towards ‘Sab Ka Digital Saath and Sab Ka Digital Vikas’, he said.
“India may have started a little late, but we’ll finish first by rolling out 5G services that are of higher quality and more affordable than anywhere else in the world,” he added.
Ambani further said that “5G is much more than just the next generation of connectivity technology, offering foundational technology that unlocks the full potential of other transformative technologies like artificial intelligence, internet of things, robotics, blockchain, and metaverse.” (PTI)