Vodafone Idea to leverage strong rural India presence: Birla at 5G launch

Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on Saturday said Vodafone Idea will leverage its strong presence in rural India, enterprise customers and tech partners as well as the global expertise of Vodafone Group for progressively rolling out 5G network and services.

“Telecom industry will further ignite digital dreams of 1.3 billion Indians and thousands of enterprises. It will set the stage for the country to become a 5-trillion dollar economy in the next three years with a trillion dollar contribution,” Birla, said at the inauguration of the India Mobile Congress 2022 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.

Birla added that critical policy interventions by the government in the telecom space had boosted investor confidence, and hoped that the sector will continue to receive policy support.

"We will soon begin the 5G rollout journey. We will leverage a strong presence in rural India, enterprise customers, tech partners, and global expertise of Vodafone Group for progressively rolling out 5G services...," Birla said.

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PM Modi launches 5G telephony services in India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the 5G telephony services that promise to provide ultra high-speed internet on mobile phones, saying it marks the beginning of a new era and presents a sea of opportunities.

Modi launched 5G services in select cities at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022 conference. The services will progressively cover the entire country over the next couple of years.

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"5G marks the dawn of a new era and presents a sea of opportunities," he said.

While the nation was dependent on foreign countries for technology for 2G, 3G and 4G telecom services, India has created history with 5G, he said.

(With inputs from PTI)