The Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the telecom sector in the country will witness more reforms in coming years, but asserted that the industry too will have to do its bit and reciprocate by improving quality of service significantly.

Vaishnaw said that service quality parameters have to be significantly increased and the Department of Telecoms should approach the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in this regard. He advised them to start a new stakeholders’ consultation aimed at significantly increasing the quality-of-service parameters, almost making it 3x or 4x of what it is today.

The Minister was addressing on Wednesday the annual flagship event 2022 of Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA), an apex industry body representing digital infrastructure providers industry in India.

The Minister said that the journey of 5G is going to be very exciting and noted that many countries took multiple years to reach 40 to 50 percent coverage, according to an official statement.

“But we are targeting a very aggressive timeline and the government has given a target of 80 percent coverage in a short time frame and we should definitely cover at least 80 percent in a very short timeframe,” he added.

Vaishnaw said that the industry, including telcos and infrastructure providers, should move full steam ahead on improving quality of services in the country, now that a slew of reforms had been announced and more were lined up.

The Minister said initiatives cannot be one-sided, and the equation has to be reciprocal.

While addressing the audience, junior Communications Minister Devusinh Chauhan said that the country is transforming from ‘developing’ to a ‘developed’ nation.

Chauhan said that the last mile connectivity is very crucial for the development of the telecom sector and advised the telcos to work hard in that direction.

He further said that the 5G connectivity should play a major role in providing various services, including health, education and logistics. DIPA should play a pivotal role in this regard, he added.

During the event, an EY-DIPA White Paper titled ‘GatiShakti — paving the way for an accelerated digital infrastructure rollout in India’ was also unveiled.

The paper focuses on the fact that the advent of 5G is going to be a game changer for India and is likely to have a profound impact on the socio-economic fabric.