‘Govt must ensure early 5G rollout’

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal Tuesday said thegovernment must encourage 5G rollout in the country at the earliest bysupporting the telecom sector in terms of pricing of spectrum at reasonablelevels and lowering various levies.

“My recommendation is govt must encourage 5G coming inIndia … Rather than being late. Government can help in giving more spectrumat reasonable price,” Mittal told reporters here.

   

He said the telecom regulator Trai-recommended price is veryhigh, as for 5G every operator will require over 100 megahertz.

“All equipment currently being deployed by Airtel are5G ready. You cannot have a situation where you want to benefit Digital Indiaand you tax the most. Just not get into a new dialogue… You see new DCC(Digital Communications Commission) policy. What you have committed dothat,” Mittal said.

The government has promised reduction in levies on thetelecom sector under the new telecom policy.

He said the industry is building infrastructure for 5Gservice and the government has to extend support.

Mittal said that Bharti Airtel wants to have it opticalfibre company Telesonic to be in place by March and it is in talks withVodafone to join the company with its optic fibre network.

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