The advent of 5G and new services that it would usher in will spawn fresh job opportunities in the market, requiring suitable skilling of manpower in new technologies, Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman said on Wednesday.

Rajaraman, who was speaking at an event of Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) in New Delhi, said that from BharatNet to space communications, and from 5G to fixedline broadband services, the telecom sector would unlock new job requirements of various categories.

He exhorted the industry to look closely at creation of the talent pipeline to address these emerging opportunities.

“5G growth will come from (the) number of use case it would permit in various industrial settings…5G, because of nature of technology and capability it offers, will open up (a) new range of skills,” Rajaraman said.

The top DoT official affirmed that 5G will spur jobs in areas like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Internet of Things and other areas, according to a PTI report.

Fixed wireline broadband too, where penetration levels are low, in fact, far below the global benchmarks, has the clear headroom for double-digit growth, he pointed out.

“Soon we hope to address the policy constraints which are facing fixed wireline industry and see how we can provide the push needed to take the industry forward,” he said, adding that the high growth rates can absolutely be afforded given the potential and the current small base.

“…the jobs that can be provided are phenomenal,” he emphasised.

Noting that technology and communications standards are global, Rajaraman also asked TSSC to actively work with other nations to sign some mutual recognition agreements in the certification system in the telecom sector.