The Indian telecom sector has
witnessed significant developments in recent years, setting the stage for a
transformative era. Driven by unprecedented data consumption, a vast
user base, and a policy-friendly environment, India continues to foster
industry growth and start-up innovation.
Today India has 99% coverage footprint in 4G with over 6 lakh villages covered
in 4G and around 4.42 lakh 5G BTS.
The DoT
is also establishing strategic international partnerships and collaborations to
build a world-class telecom ecosystem to enhance global connectivity and
position India as a global leader in digital innovation and infrastructure.
Telecom Diplomacy has helped attracting new business ventures, forge
partnerships with global leaders, nurture domestic startups, demonstrate
India’s commitment to driving innovation and securing its leadership position
in the global telecommunications landscape. The telecom diplomacy has been
focussed on outcomes and many green shoots are visible.
India’s
engaged with partner countries, telecom chip companies and tech giants to forge
strategic partnerships. During the visits in Sept 23 and Jan 24 to the USA, the
‘US-India OpenRAN Acceleration Roadmap’ was formalised to foster Open RAN
adoption and mutual trust for trusted suppliers
Collaboration
with the FCC and NSF of USA enabled India to start dialogue on international
best practices in spectrum allocation, quality of service assurance, and future
tech research. The RINGS programme of NSF has the potential to enhance
effective collaboration of industry, academia and Government R&D and is a
good model that has led to discussions with Indian industry on similar lines.
The response has been enthusiastic.
The gap
between imports and exports has decreased in recent years. Most of the 5G demands are being met from Made in India. Indian
companies have exported Rs 25200 crores worth of telecom equipment and
accessories last year. DoT has taken concerted efforts to help our domestic
companies showcase their domestic products in all foreign fora so that these
can be exported…VVDN has setup offices at 3 location in USA – Vermont, Austin
and NY and is already serving clients like CISCO, Maveneir and TESLA. Further,
31 startups participated in MWC USA and Spain and developed business leads for
around $100mn.
World
Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) is being held in October 2024
for the first time in India in which over 2000 delegates from 180 countries
will participate and will decide the future direction of standards for next
generation of telecommunication systems… Significant efforts were undertaken to
make IMC a global event like Mobile World Congress by 2025 that will boost
India’s economy by attracting international participants and investments.
Tie ups
with PAN IIT USA, GSMA, IEEE, INSA have resulted in broad basing IMC 2024 into
a World Class hi-tech telecom event.
The DoT
explored potential collaborations in Quantum Networks and Quantum Teleportation
with University of Chicago to elevate R&D, foster innovation, and fortify
the startup ecosystem in Quantum Communications within India. A quantum
teleportation link between USA and India is being explored.
The above outreach efforts have
succeeded in propelling India into leadership position in international fora, improving exports, build bridges
with advance countries, learning from the best practices and access to
specialised knowledge from trusted partner countries.