Ambani went on to present his five ideas on the new theme – ‘Connectivity for the next Decade’. He said that India had fundamentally redefined its relationship with technology in the past few years, with people embracing technology with unbridled optimism as was seen during the Covid-induced lockdowns.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani delivered the keynote speech at the fifth edition of the Indian Mobile Congress and said that India should make a full-scale migration from 2G to 4G to 5G services and 5G roll out should become a national priority to strengthen digital connectivity over the next decade.
Ambani went on to present his five ideas on the new theme – ‘Connectivity for the next Decade’. He said that India had fundamentally redefined its relationship with technology in the past few years, with people embracing technology with unbridled optimism as was seen during the Covid-induced lockdowns.
“India must complete the migration from 2G to 4G to 5G at the earliest. To keep millions of Indians at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid confined to 2G is to deprive them of the benefits of the digital revolution, Ambani said about his first idea.
His second idea spoke about how the roll-out of 5G should be India’s national priority and how Jio is focused on 4G and 5G execution and broadband infrastructure expansion. “At Jio, we are currently focused on 4G and 5G execution and broadband infrastructure expansion. We have developed a 100% home-grown and comprehensive 5G solution which is fully cloud native and digitally managed.”
Ambani’s third idea was on the importance of affordability of newer technological advancements and how the affordability factor “has been a critical driver of the phenomenally rapid expansion of the mobile subscriber base in India.”
“India should move towards greater digital inclusion, and not greater digital exclusion,” he added, stressing that the country needs to ensure not just the affordability of services but also that of devices and applications.
His fourth idea was that fibre connectivity should be completed across India on a mission mode. India should work on ubiquitous fibre connectivity on a “mission mode.” He said that for India to be future-ready, it has to be fibre-ready. “If all the players in the industry work together, we can rapidly achieve a nationwide footprint of Fibre, just as we reached mobile telephony to every corner of the country in the last decade,” he said.
As the fifth idea, he presented that beyond connectivity, India must also focus on “the critical components of the digital ecosystem,” including a sound regulatory and policy framework. “Technologies are maturing for energy saving through smart grids, decarbonisation of the economy, and a drastic reduction in the cost of India’s transition to clean and green energy. All this shows that CARE FOR THE PEOPLE and CARE FOR THE PLANET are embedded in the gigantic transformation that our industry has initiated,” he said.