India's techade here as it steps into 5G era

New Delhi: 5G mobile telephony, which holds the promise of offering 10 times faster speeds and lag-free connectivity, will soon start in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday. The Prime Minister touched upon all-round development of technology in the country from 5G to push for electronic chips, laying of optical fibre cable (OFC) network across villages and enablement of digital entrepreneurship in villages through Common Services Centres making the present decade as 'techade' for India.

"Now, we are stepping towards the era of 5G won't have to wait for long. We are taking optical fibre to every village. I have full knowledge that the dream of Digital India will pass through villages. I am happy that India's 4 lakh common service centres are developing in villages. Country can boast of 4 lakh digital entrepreneurs getting ready in villages and people in villages becoming habitual of taking services from them," Modi said.

The government earlier this month sold 5G telecom spectrum for Rs1.5 lakh crore to billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, richest Indian Gautam Adani's group and Vodafone Idea. Besides powering ultra-low latency connections, which allow downloading full-length high-quality video or movie to a mobile device in a matter of seconds (even in crowded areas), the Fifth Generation or 5G would enable solutions such as e-health, connected vehicles, more-immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming, among others.