5G plans to remain affordable, say Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Sunil Mittal of Airtel

Come October 12, 5G services will commence to roll out in the country. A promise, telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, recently committed to the citizens of India. Given the high spectrum auction and license fee, there is a fear of 5G services being priced at a premium. To this, the minister has assured at Business Today's India@100 Economy Summit, that he will ensure that the prices will remain affordable for the consumers to access 5G. "First of all, it will be a mass proposition. Not only the two private sector telecom service providers, but BSNL will also roll out its 5G in the coming 18 to 24 months for sure," he said.

While speaking at the summit, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises too confirmed that as consumers will consume more data, therefore they will end up paying a little bit more. "We need to go to $40-50 (tariff) like the western world. Maybe we need to get the $3-4 for 5G services." Mittal also hinted at the possibility of having packs across price points. There can be Rs 100 pack at the low end which a common man can pay for 5G and be connected in a reasonable amount of data. "But people who can pay Rs 500,  I don't see any reason why you need to subsidize across the whole bandwidth of spectrum or spectrum of customers," Mittal added.

The 5th Generation of wireless technology in telecommunication will be capable of delivering reliable higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds with ultra-low latency. To access the high-speed networks, the market is flooded with 5G-enabled smartphones starting at around Rs 15,000. And while enterprises will be able to reap the benefits of 5G, the technology will bring a big difference in two sectors - education and health. Earlier, education was at the centre and digital was built around it. But the minister believes this will reverse will technology at the centre and education being built around it. The same will happen in healthcare. "These two sectors are going to make a very big difference in the lives of 130 Crore Indians, and especially the people who are at who are at the bottom of the pyramid, who are at the most remotest parts at the margins of the society, the people for who are from our political thought process point of view who are the most important people for whom we exist," says minister Vaishnaw.

And as India joins the 5G race, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set an ambitious goal of India becoming a leader in 6G by the end of this decade.