Government to unveil 5G roadmap by June-end: Telecom Secretary

Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan on Friday said the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will unveil the roadmap for 5G or fifth-generation by the end of June.

"The DoT has received good inputs on 5G in the new telecom policy or NTP 2018 which is yet to be unveiled. The draft of the NTP 2018 is in final stages and will be put in public soon," Sundararajan, chairperson, Telecom Commission and Secretary, DoT, said while inaugurating an Assocham Summit on Connected Devices-Connected World conference.

Sundararajan said the networks were not only accelerating the roll-out of the 4G but were getting ready for 5G.

"I expect that by the end of the next financial year, we will have pan India 4G coverage barring a few pockets. The right regulatory framework is the key to create an enabling environment for connected device," she said.

Regarding in-flight connectivity, Sundararajan said, "We are moving towards getting approvals for in-flight connectivity but cannot give any time frame for the final approval, however, the discussions are on right track."

The telecom ministry has set up a high-level committee to work on 5G roadmap so that India gets access to the next generation technology when it is available for commercial roll-out globally, reported PTI.

"In the 5G we are looking to do lot of pilots. So when 5G hits India will be at leading edge of technology as well as used cases," PTI quotes Sundararajan as saying

She said that the DoT is in the process of framing new numbering scheme for SIMs that will be used for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

The 5G services are expected to focus more around M2M services like use sensors in cars and other vehicles to prevent accident, smart homes and smart cities etc.

"Just as last 18-24 months have been period of rapid and radical changes. In the next 12 months we will see large number of these capabilities being built in India. In the coming months we will begin to see actual roll out of M2M," Sundararajan added.

(with inputs from PTI)