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Indian telecom operators have surpassed the three- year 5G network rollout target given to them within six months and now the government is making efforts to enhance adoption of 5G applications across various key segments, a senior government official said here. Department of Telecom Additional Secretary VL Kantha Rao told PTI at "India Evening" event on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress 2023 that the government has hosted over 50 companies at the India pavilion and the delegation is here to showcase indigenously-developed 4G and 5G technology stack. "When the spectrum was allocated to telecom service providers for 5G rollout, we gave a minimum rollout obligation saying that within one year they have to cover a few cities within three years, a few towns and so on and so forth. I'm glad to say that in the first six months of 5G rollout, they have surpassed all the targets that we have given them for the next three years," Rao said. He said the rapid rollout of the 5G network in
Telecom regulator TRAI has called a meeting with telcos on February 17 to discuss measures and action plan for improving service quality, review of norms, benchmarks for 5G services, and unsolicited commercial communications. The meeting assumes significance as improvement in telecom service quality is bound to cheer mobile customers, irked by call drops and patchy networks. It also comes at a time when ultra high speed 5G services are rolling out across the country. So far, as many as 200 cities in India have seen launch of 5G services, the next generation of technology that promises turbocharged speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G) and low latency connectivity. Issues around service quality have been in the spotlight over the last few months. The Telecom Department back in December met operators to discuss rising instances of call drops and service quality-related issues, as it deliberated on policy measures that can be considered for improving call quality. In a statement on .
The telecom department on Wednesday met operators to discuss rising instances of call drops and service quality-related issues, as it deliberated on policy interventions that can be considered for improving call quality. The meeting, which comes amid the rollout of massive 5G networks in the country, was chaired by Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman and attended by telecom service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea. The issue of interference from illegal boosters and Right of Way (RoW) challenges came up for discussion at the meeting, which lasted for almost two hours. Sources said that operators made a detailed presentation to the Department of Telecom on current levels of service quality against stipulated benchmarks. DoT sources said that the department is taking a long-term view of the service quality-related matters and has asked players to identify problem areas, and make suggestions on policy interventions that could improve the call connectivity.
Telecom operators' body COAI on Tuesday made a strong pitch for OTT (over-the-top) communications services to directly compensate telcos for data traffic they are driving onto the networks, as it advocated a licencing and light-touch regulation framework for such services. Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI), Director General, SP Kochhar said that the association, as part of draft telecom bill, has given its suggestions on how OTT communications services should be defined, to ensure there is no ambiguity. The other aspects like proposing a financial model for OTT communications services to compensate telecom service providers, through a possible revenue share model, will be made to the government going forward as and when the specifics of the framework for light-touch regulation is discussed, Kochhar told reporters at a briefing. In future, the same principle of revenue share basis data consumption, can be applied to other OTTs (all categories), as well, he added.