Govt wants India's telecom service to remain most affordable in entire world: Telecom Minister
The government wants India's telecom service to remain the most affordable in the entire world, union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
According to the telecom sector industry body Cellular Operators Association of India, telecom operators have not been able to monetise 5G service since its launch last year.
"From the government side we are very clear. We would like telecom service to continue to remain the most affordable in the entire world and today among all large economies India's telecom sector is the most affordable telecom sector," Vaishnaw told PTI in an interview at India Mobile Congress 2023.
According to analysts, telecom operators need an average revenue per user (ARPU) in the range of ₹270-300 over next three years to realise the investments they are making in building 5G networks.
At present ARPU in India is in the range of ₹140-200 compared to global average of ₹600-850 and about ₹580 in China.
Telecom operators have been demanding that 4-5 apps that generate large traffic on their network should pay revenue share based on the business they generate from India to compensate for the network cost.
Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are the only two out of four mobile service providers that have rolled out 5G services and their combined investment in 5G network is estimated to be around ₹3 lakh crore including the cost of spectrum.
Both the companies have not yet started charging for 5G data usage.
While debt ridden Vodafone Idea non-executive additional director Kumar Mangalam Birla at the event announced that the company will make significant investments to roll out 5G network and expand 4G coverage in the coming quarters.
Vaishnaw said that BSNL is rolling out a 4G network which will be ramped up after Diwali
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