In an effort to expand its footprint in the telecom sector, India will explore opportunities along with the UK to provide telecom services such as information communication technology (ICT) in other developing countries together.
“We held a very fruitful meeting with the delegation from the UK. We spoke about collaborating with them to offer telecom services in other countries so that their citizens can enjoy the benefits of technology through telecom. They have responded positively,” Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha told reporters at the Mobile World Congress (MWC). “This will also help India expand its telecom footprint. They have responded positively,” he noted.
“We also hope to enrich our understanding of new directions and technologies over the next few days so that we can assess, refine, adopt, and deploy them in support of our ongoing mission of Digital India,” he said.
The key areas
Some of the key areas of interest are 5G, the internet of things, machine-to-machine communication, big data and cyber security, he said.
Sinha said that telecom services can be leveraged, like in India, to offer citizens various services such as e-health, e-education and e-agriculture as well as help in digital and financial inclusion.
“India believes that 5G is a powerful tool for inclusion and, therefore, there is a need for focus on developing and deploying it in agriculture, health,” he said.
“Our approach to such partnerships has been to share the know-how as well as the know-why so that our partner countries derive tangible and sustainable benefits,” he noted.
The Telecom Minister also said the government is taking decisive steps to align spectrum prices in India with the rest of the world to speed up the deployment of fast mobile 5G broadband networks in the country.
The upcoming National Telecom Policy 2018 would address this aspect, he added.
“The government will align adopt global best practices on spectrum pricing, especially as it does not view the telecom industry merely as a revenue generator, but as a mass development enabler for the common man,” he added.
5G technology
Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan, who was also present, said the world needs to look at inclusive 5G, which is India’s message to the MWC this year.
She said the Indian official delegation, led by the Minister, had held deliberations with the Chief Executives of top global network vendors such as Ericsson and Huawei to deepen their ‘Make in India’ engagement.
She said that while Ericsson had committed itself to come out with a roadmap for exporting out of India, Huawei has offered assurances that it would work on advancing its 5G activities in the country.
The writer is in Barcelona to cover the Mobile World Congress at the invitation of Huawei India