India’s aspiration to take a leading role in 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) will ride on its ability to build core networks for new-age technologies and an enabling industry ecosystem, Department of Telecom (DoT) secretary Aruna Sundararajan said on Friday.
Livemint reported that terming the next-generation technologies like IoT critical, Sundararajan said the government’s endeavour is to provide an “enabling” policy for growth of the industry and not to impose a “heavy regulatory framework”.
“I agree India has more at stake in IoT and 5G than any other country because we need to leapfrog to meet the aspirations of the young demography and democracy,” Sundararajan said addressing a summit on IoT organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
“We need to have core network and communications ecosystem that will facilitate 5G and IoT. We also need to get the rest of the ecosystem ready for the paradigm change”, the DoT secretary said.
Outlining India’s ambitions to position itself as not just as a consumer but a leader in 5G and IoT, Sundararajan said telecom service providers have already started rolling out pilots for 5G. Communication networks, she said, are going to be the first pillar of India’s 5G play.
Sundararajan said the telecom department has taken a slew of measures in the areas of machine-to-machine communication including issuing draft M2M service provider registration guidelines in 2016, and finalising a roadmap for 13-digit M2M numbering scheme. DoT will consult the industry to keep the framework in these areas open for innovation, she added.
