Reliance Industries Chairperson and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said on Tuesday that his company’s subsidiary, Jio Platforms, will roll out 5G services in the second half of 2021.

“I assure you that Jio will pioneer the 5G revolution in India in the second half of 2021,” he said during his keynote address at the India Mobile Congress 2020. “It will be powered by indigenous-developed network, hardware and technology components.”

Ambani noted that the 5G service would be a “testimony” to the Centre’s “self-reliant India” programme, and said the government needed to take policy-related steps to accelerate the process for the early roll out of the network technology service.

He said that urgent policy steps were also needed to ensure that 1.3 crore people using 2G services can afford a smartphone to reap benefits such as direct benefit transfer, and are able to participate in the digital economy.

“I can say with utmost confidence that 5G will enable India to not only participate in the fourth industrial revolution but also to lead it,” the Reliance Industries head said. “Jio Platforms, with its family of over 20 startup partners, has built world-class capabilities in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data and machine learning, Internet of Things, mixed and virtual reality cloud and blockchain.”

Ambani said that his company was creating home-grown solutions in education, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure, financial services, and new commerce. “Each of these solutions once proven in India will be offered to the rest of the world to address global challenges,” he said.

Reliance Jio is working with companies such as Samsung and Qualcomm to bring 5G in India, according to Gadgets 360. Ambani had in July announced that Jio would start testing 5G network in the country as soon as the spectrum was available. In October, Jio had announced it was developing its 5G Radio Access Network to assist in testing the next-generation network.

The roll out of 5G network would give Jio an advantage over other telecom companies. It is already the biggest company in the telecom sector with a market share of over 35%, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India data.

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Need to work together for timely roll out of 5G: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told telecom companies on Tuesday that all the stakeholders need to work together for the timely launch of 5G network services.

“The future holds great potential with the rapid technology progress,” he said at the India Mobile Congress 2020. “We need to work together to ensure a timely roll out of 5G to leapfrog into the future and empower millions of Indians.”

The prime minister also said that his government was working to provide every village with high-speed fibre-optic connectivity in the next three years. “We have already linked up the Andaman and Nicobar Island with fiber optic cable,” he said. “We are coming out with programmes that focus exclusively on places which can make the best out of such connectivity – aspirational districts, Left wing extremism affected districts, North Eastern states, Lakshadweep Islands etc.”

Highlighting the digital space in India, Modi pointed out that the country has 75 crore Internet users out of which nearly 50% were added in the last four year. He said that half of the total users came from rural India.

The prime minister also said that the government will take the help of mobile technology to conduct the “world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination drive”.