4G Coverage in India will beat 2G in a year, says Mukesh Ambani

 

India has become the world’s largest data consuming nation in the last one year, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries, said at the opening of India Mobile World Congress in New Delhi. 

“Data is the oxygen of a digital economy. We cannot deprive Indians of this vital life-sustaining resource. We have to provide ubiquitous access to high-speed data at affordable prices,” he emphasised.

The RIL chairman made the point that it has to be ensured every Indian has access to an affordable smartphone that connects him to limitless knowledge and the power of the Internet.

Reliance Jio, his telecom upstart that has captured more than 128 million users within a year of launch, will this week rollout a basic 4G phone that will be available to its users on making a refundable deposit of Rs. 1,500.

Indian mobile market, Ambani said, is now overflowing with data and a robust digital circulatory system has to be created to carry data to the 1.3 billion Indians.
“4G coverage in India will become larger than the 2G coverage within the next 12 months,” he asserted.

India, Ambani said, has leapfrogged from a lowly 155th in mobile broadband penetration to being the world’s largest mobile data consuming nation in just one year.

He put down this jump largely to launch of Reliance Jio which during the promotional phase offered unlimited free data and after that at dirt cheap price, saying the pace at which the Indian mobile industry has grown is unparallelled in the world.

Stating that Indian telecom and IT industry has to play a foundational role in creating the digital infrastructure, the RIL chief said the country had missed out on the first three global industrial revolutions of mechanisation, mass production and automation, but has the opportunity to lead in the fourth industrial revolution fuelled by connectivity, data and artificial intelligence.

“Mobile Internet and cloud computing are the foundational technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he said.

“Data is the new oil. India does not need to import it. We have it in super-abundance. It will be a new source of value and will create opportunities and prosperity for India and millions of Indians.”