IMC 2022 | 5G fuels expectations and new use cases 

India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022 concluded on Tuesday with the formal announcement of the 5G rollout being the focus of it

October 05, 2022 01:44 pm | Updated 02:26 pm IST

India Mobile Congress, the four-day-long event, was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Union Ministers, telecom industry, and partners. 

India Mobile Congress, the four-day-long event, was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Union Ministers, telecom industry, and partners.  | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan

The four-day-long event was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who dedicated the 5G services to the nation along with Union Ministers, telecom industry and partners. 

The 6th edition of IMC saw Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea announcing their 5G rollout plans. The State-owned BSNL was absent in the 5G race as it is expected to roll out 4G services later this year. 

Mukesh Ambani, CMD, Reliance Industries, made it clear that the services will be ‘affordable’. He said that Jio will cover entire country with the 5G network by December 2023. Meanwhile, the company has started the Beta trial of 5G services in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Varanasi on Wednesday. 

Similarly, Airtel announced the 5G services in eight cities starting from October 1. Sunil Bharti Mittal, CEO, Bharti Enterprise, who praised Jio for its pace, said that 5G is going to bring major transformation in the lives of people and thus simultaneously bring many new use cases. 

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, announced Indian Government is going to set up 100 5G labs across the country. He added the Indian Government is working significantly towards simplifying the license regime for all telecom players and urged the telecom industry to convert a minimum 12 of these labs into incubators to train students, promote innovation, research and experiment. 

The 6th edition of IMC saw Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea announcing their 5G rollout plans

The 6th edition of IMC saw Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea announcing their 5G rollout plans | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan

Despite being the Mobile Congress, all major smartphone makers stayed away from the event, except Lava. It showcased its new 5G smartphone, Blaze 5G, during the IMC 2022 but hasn’t announced the price yet. The homegrown handset maker will reveal the price of Blaze 5G around Diwali. 

While interacting with the visitors, and students on the final day, it came out that they are quite anxious about the 5G rollout. They hope that 5G will improve call quality, increase downloading speed, impact gaming and ease the call drop issue. Visitors were quite interested in knowing the new 5G tariffs whereas the industry is looking towards the new use cases. 

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