Department of Telecom expects to finalise roadmap for 5G services

The Department of Telecom expects to finalize a roadmap for 5G services by June this year, a top official said.

"By June this year, I hope we will be able to unveil India's 5G roadmap," Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said at an Assocham event. Globally, standards around 5G are expected to be finalised this year.

The telecom ministry has set up a high-level committee to work on 5G roadmap so that India gets access to the next generation technology when it is available for commercial roll-out globally.

"In the 5G we are looking to do a lot of pilots. So when 5G hits India will be at leading edge of technology as well as used cases," Sundararajan said. She said that the DoT is in the process of framing new numbering scheme for SIMs that will be used for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

The 5G services is considered to focus more on M2M services like use sensors in cars and other vehicles to prevent accident, smart homes and smart cities etc.

"Just as last 18-24 months have been period of rapid and radical changes. In the next 12 months, we will see a large number of these capabilities being built in India. In the coming months we will begin to see the actual roll out of M2M," Sundararajan said.