India\u2019s current telecom duopoly \u2013 dominated by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel \u2013 is not a product of policy, but rather market realities driven by capital intensity, said Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, Minister of State for Communications. <\/p>\n
While speaking to CNBC TV18 on the sidelines of India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2025 roadshow in Bengaluru, Pemmasani said, \u201cThe duopoly has not been created intentionally by anybody. Telecom requires massive capex.\u201d He added that Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel were able to deploy capital effectively, enabling them to expand deeply across the country. He also credited them for helping the country achieve the fastest 5G rollout in the world. <\/p>\n
Govt reaffirms support for Vodafone Idea, BSNL <\/p>\n
Pemmasani underscored the government\u2019s intention to maintain healthy competition in the sector and reaffirmed its support for players like Vodafone Idea and BSNL. He said that the county needs four to five telcos. <\/p>\n
Highlighting efforts to support struggling operator Vodafone Idea, the minister pointed to the government\u2019s conversion of nearly Rs 36,000 crore into equity. However, he acknowledged the company\u2019s continued challenges. \u201cThey still have problems and keep seeking government support. We continue to accelerate, but our goal is not to have only two players,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Pemmasani further reiterated the government\u2019s commitment to reviving Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). He said that the company\u2019s turnaround is progressing slowly due to a parallel focus on building indigenous technology. \u201cBSNL\u2019s revival is taking longer because we are also focused on building homegrown solutions. But eventually, BSNL will become a strong alternative,\u201d he stated. <\/p>\n
India eyes 6G leadership with early contributions<\/p>\n
Going forward, Pemmasani also shared India\u2019s ambition to be among the first nations to roll out 6G services. Meanwhile, China and the US are aiming to launch the next generation of telecom services by 2030. \u201cWith 2G, 3G, 4G, and even 5G, India was not part of the global standard-setting process. But with 6G, we\u2019ve already contributed to about 10 per cent of the global standards and have filed over 200 patents,\u201d he told CNBC TV18.<\/p>\n
Digital infrastructure sees big gains<\/p>\n
The minister also cited India\u2019s significant progress in digital infrastructure. According to him, the country now boasts 1.2 billion mobile subscribers, 1 billion broadband users, and over 2.2 lakh connected villages through the BharatNet programme. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now investing $18 billion more to connect 40,000 additional gram panchayats and 1.5 crore rural households with high-speed internet,\u201d he said while maintaining that India is now moved from importing 75 per cent of its mobile devices, to now exporting Rs 1.8 trillion worth of devices annually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India\u2019s current telecom duopoly \u2013 dominated by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel \u2013 is not a product of policy, but rather market realities driven by capital intensity, said Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, Minister of State for Communications. While speaking to CNBC TV18 on the sidelines of India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2025 roadshow in Bengaluru, Pemmasani said, \u201cThe duopoly has not been created intentionally by anybody. Telecom requires massive capex.\u201d He added that Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel were able to deploy capital effectively, enabling them to expand deeply across the country. He also credited them for helping the country achieve the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-943133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-telecom"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}