India is set to demonstrate to the world how it can be a test bed for 5G telecom networks. Leading the move is Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha who, along with senior DoT officials, is visiting the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, starting Monday. There, they will meet officials from global companies and discuss policies that promote ease-of-doing business in the Indian telecom sector.

This is the first time that a Telecom Minister from the NDA government is attending the MWC. The last Telecom Minister to do so was Kapil Sibal from the UPA government.

“We want to highlight to the world that India is in the frontier in telecom. Over the past year, particularly, there has been a rapid penetration of mobile data. Also, we have the world’s largest IP-based network, by Reliance Jio,” Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), told reporters here.

There is significant development in 5G and emerging technologies, with plenty of 5G ecosystem standardisation taking place, she said. “While we are preparing the ground, we want global players also to start looking at India as a premium market for 5G. The use cases that are being looked at currently are largely for advanced economies.”

Sundararajan further said the world should know that India has a holistic approach in transitioning to 5G ecosystem development, through progressive policy measures including spectrum sharing/trading, infrastructure sharing, Internet of Things, future networks based on cloud and safe and secure use of ICT.

Also, she said, the government is identifying potential use cases of 5G with inter-ministerial consultation, especially in smart cities, smart villages, e-health, e-education, agriculture and disaster management.

The main agenda of the National Telecom Policy 2018 is also focusing on internet for all, skill development, security of telecom networks, safe and secured use of next-generation technologies such as 5G, IoT and artificial intelligence, she added.

At MWC, senior Ministry officials will visit the booths of leading companies such as Ericsson, Huawei, Intel and Nokia to view their latest technologies. They will also visit start-ups booths that are showcasing how rural areas can be connected, and examine which of the technologies can be adopted in India.

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