India to roll out 5G by 2022, increase fiber backbone to 2.5 mn kilometers

South Korea is expected to launch these services by March 2019, Japan in late 2019 and China, along with most western major cities, in 2020

Technology News: India plans to roll out state-of-the-art 5G telecom services in the next four years, a senior official said, as the nation rushes to catch up with its Asian peers.

“We are not there yet,” Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said in an interview in New Delhi, adding that complete roll-out of 5G will be done by 2022.

“5G won’t be driven by supply, it’ll be driven by demand and the rest of industry needs to wake up to this.”

The South Asian nation, traditionally a laggard while embracing latest technology in telecommunications, will follow South Korea, Japan and China where 5G service will be offered within the next two years. The high-speed and low latency service will help Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India plan, which seeks to broaden Internet access, and the Smart Cities initiative.

“If we want smart cities, clearly we need smart infrastructure for it,” Sundararajan said, adding some early stage projects may start rolling out as early as 2020.

Article Source >> BS