Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal said at an event in Delhi that the use cases of 5G have not yet caught up with its high speeds, which is important for the country’s telcos to recoup the high costs of deploying the 5G network, echoing an industry wide concern.
"Significant capital expenditure will be needed as we transition from 5G to 6G. So far, 5G’s potential use cases remain largely untapped, both in India and globally, despite substantial investment. The primary benefit observed has been increased speed compared to 4G, while other advantages are yet to be realized," said Mittal.
He further highlighted that telecom is the foundation of modern activities. He added that while India lagged in 4G, it kept pace with the world in 5G and aims to lead in 6G.
Mittal said that the country has become the top most country in terms of data consumption. He also indicated that the government has been very proactive and encouraged lots of domestic production. Our focus has been to be self reliant on India's technology.
"India is the 5th country to develop its own 4G stack," he added.
Mittal also mentioned that the government is keen to put infrastructure in place. "As we speak, we are rolling out a ₹1,30,000 crore program to connect every Gram Panchayat with 1 Gbps connectivity under the amended BharatNet program. You may have seen earlier versions of this initiative, but this time, it includes a 10-year CAPEX plus OPEX model," he added.
In terms of challenges, he highlighted that as data flow increases, the country has to find a new spectrum. "As the data flow increases, we are going to find new spectrum for mobile usage and technologies in broadband," he added.
He also added that a major challenge ahead is the affordability of devices. While smartphones are often taken for granted, a significant portion of the population still uses non-smartphone devices.
Mittal was speaking at the IPCIDE Annual Conference on the State of India's Digital Economy (SIDE) 2025 that was held on February 28 in New Delhi.
The panel comprised of key speakers such as Sanjeev Bikchandani, co founder, Info Edge, R. Chandrashekhar, former President, Nasscom, Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Department of Telecommunication,fessoa Misra, Public Policy and Partnership Lead for India, Open AI and Payal Malik, Visiting Professor, ICRIER.
