The first day of the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2020 being jointly organised by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) started amid much fervor on December 8, 2020. The three-day mega-event, themed “Inclusive Innovation: Smart, Secure, Sustainable” was inaugurated by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
The day kickstarted with a welcome address by Anshu Prakash, Chairman, Digital Communications Commission and Secretary (T), DoT, which was followed by speeches by Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries Limited and Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises; Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Communications, Education and Electronics and Information Technology; Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology and Law and Justice. The inaugural address was delivered by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. This was followed by a thanksgiving address by Lt Gen Dr S.P. Kochhar, Director General, COAI.
In the inaugural address, Narendra Modi, appreciated Indian telecom sector’s relentless innovation and effort that helped the country function smoothly during the pandemic. Be it in making healthcare more affordable and accessible to people, providing online education to the students or even in making essential services available to all in a hassle-free manner. He stated that ”Now, we need to work together to ensure timely roll-out of 5G network connectivity in order to leapfrog into the future and empower millions of Indians. We are also in fact embarking on a plan to ensure that over the next 3 years, every village have high speed fibre optic connectivity. India is emerging as one of the most preferred destination for mobile manufacturing. It is of paramount importance, considering the fact that, it is with the help of mobile technology that we will embark on one of the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination drive.”
Further, Ravi Shankar Prasad stated that India has immense talent and innovative spirit which must be leveraged for 4G and 5G. “Technology must be smart, secure and sustainable so that common people come to have a stake in the process. India has the potential to become the hub of global supply chain. Ease of doing business is attracting global companies to set up shop in India and the incentive linked investment scheme is helping in this. I want to urge innovators and manufacturers to Make in India and export outside and earn incentives in the process. Also, digital inclusion and empowerment is the priority now and tech like AI should also work towards ensuring this. Be it JAM, UPI, GSTN – all is now managed digitally. This Inclusive character of digital is something that the world can replicate from us. I have no doubt about the fact that we will become 1 trillion dollar digital economy in the next 5 years.”
Meanwhile, Dhotre shared that there has been a 30 per cent jump in data consumption with many subscribers upgrading their broadband connections to meet their requirements during the pandemic. He added that efforts are being made to address the digital divide by extending internet access to every Indian as mobile technology use empowers the masses to become a critical means of accessing a broad range of public services.
Prakash stated that the Indian telecom sector was able to demonstrate its strength in dealing with the Covid-19 situation. The telecom networks did not fail us even for a day. “The massive data consumption surge accommodated quite easily and all stakeholders deserve full praise of this success. Robotics, AI, VR, AR- every new technology will run on telecom. It is important for us now to bridge the digital divide, innovate to bring in more intelligent products that are secure and environmentally sustainable”, he added.
On the telco front, Ambani in his address emphasised on the need of urgent policy steps to ensure availability of 5G technology and smartphones in India. “In order to maintain this lead, policy steps are needed to accelerate early rollout of 5G, and to make it affordable and available everywhere,” he said.
Mittal also stated that 5G will soon become a norm in the connectivity space. “I’m particularly very excited about the upcoming 5G which in the next two or three years should start to become the norm in the mobile broadband space as the world settles down on the 5G space pricing of the equipment comes down and importantly the devices start getting available in plenty,” he said.
The day also witnessed a profound congregation of renowned industry leaders sharing industry insights and deliberating on the future of digital technology. During the day, five different sessions were held deliberating on ‘Industry 4.0 – Smart Workspaces and Industries, the Automation Way’; ‘CTO Conclave – Networks of Tomorrow – Transforming Networks for 5G Enablement’; ‘CEO Conclave – Inclusive Innovation – Bridging the Digital Divide’; ‘Telco Cloud- Frontier for Network Transformation’ and ‘Beyond 5G : Developing EU-IN Cooperation for the Next Generation of Standards’.
Further, Nunzio Mirtillo, Senior Vice President and Head of Market Area South East Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson; Arun Kumar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, KPMG in India; Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel Limited; Sanjay Mashruwala, Managing Director, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited; Ravinder Takkar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited also addressed the audience.
The first session on Industry 4.0 – Smart Workspaces and Industries, the Automation Way was moderated by Sushant Rabra from KPMG India and witnessed participation from industry giants including Nokia Enterprise, Cisco System Inc., Dell EMC, Ericsson, Altran Technologies, Red Hat, Trumind software systems, Ciena India, KPMG India and Bharti Airtel Limited.
This was followed by a CTO Conclave Networks of Tomorrow – Transforming Network for 5G Enablement, which saw participation from organisations like Dell Technologies, Ribbon Communications, Ericsson, KPMG Asia Pacific, Red Hat Inc., Nokia India, Bharti Airtel Limited, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Vodafone Idea Limited, STL, Facebook and Ityukt Digital Solutions.
The third session was the CEO Conclave – Inclusive Innovation – Bridging the Digital Divide, which along with various industry giants, was attended by the Union Defence Secretary Dr. Ajay Kumar (IAS).
Delving deeper into network transformation, the next session themed Telco Cloud – Frontier for Network Transformation was held in association with Accenture and witnessed participation from industry stalwarts from Red Hat Inc., Bharti Airtel Limited, Vodafone Idea limited, KPMG India, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, Ericsson, Ribbon Communications, Mavenir, Nokia, Ciena India and STL.
The last session aimed at laying the ground work for the future of 5G and hinged on the premise of ‘Beyond 5G: Developing EU-IN Cooperation for the Next Generation of Standards’. Representatives from various organisations including DG Connect, NITI Aayog, ETSI, DDG(S-R-I), TSDSI, C-DOT, COAI, 5GIA and EU Delegation participated in the session.
Another major highlight of the day was the launch of the Thought Leader Report – CEO Outlook – Smart, Secure and Sustainable by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology and Law and Justice.
Speaking at the conference, Sanjay Kaul, President-Asia Pacific and Japan, Service Provider Business, Cisco, said, “Cisco is excited to be a part of India Mobile Congress, one of the world’s biggest, most prestigious shows on all things mobile and beyond. Though this year’s India Mobile Congress 2020 is virtual, we are all still looking forward to the gathering of top minds to discuss topics such as building the digital ecosystem, architecting and building cloud-based service, artificial intelligence (AI), and internet of things (IoT) offerings, – all while positioning for the inevitable shift to 5G which reflects aptly in this year’s theme all IP, Inclusive Innovation: Smart, Secure, Sustainable”
Meanwhile, Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson South east Asia, Oceania and India, said, “The Indian government’s ‘Digital India‘ program, with its focus on empowerment, inclusion and digital transformation, relies on connectivity as its foundation – and the mobile networks in India continue to deliver on that promise. At Ericsson, we continue to stay close to our customers, communications service providers, to help them provide the best possible connectivity and network quality to Indian consumers.”
Further, Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India said, “IMC 2020 is one of the biggest digital events, on a global scale, and MediaTek is happy to be a part of the first virtual edition. The inaugural session, featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, telecommunication sector ministers and industry players, shed light on several important aspects of ‘Digital India’ and reiterated the sector’s commitment towards enabling inclusive innovation. MediaTek has been at the forefront of the 5G revolution and is bringing 5G to everyone. As the 5G partner at IMC 2020, MediaTek wishes IMC a resounding success and looks forward to an insightful and engaging event.”
Neeraj Gupta, Sales Head- Wireless Solutions, India & SAARC, CommScope, said “The potential of 5G is not limited to enabling faster speeds than 4G, but it is also a combination of evolving technologies. The pandemic has led to people working from home; increasing the demand for sufficient bandwidth to support new technologies, driving a wholesale evolution of the network. This scenario has made supporting 5G networks and Wi-Fi 6 technology imperative. Investment in infrastructure including network densification, continued efforts in 4G/LTE capacity expansion and pragmatic investments to upgrade infrastructure to support 5G networks should be the focus for mobile network operators and industry at large. Meanwhile, LTE will continue to be around for years to come and LTE coverage and capacity are expected to increase even with the arrival of 5G.”
Moreover, Dr. Anand Agarwal, Group CEO, STL, said, “IMC 2020 is a landmark event for STL as we are launching 3 extremely advanced access technologies with focus on programmability and virtualisation, across fibre, 5G and Wi-Fi. All of these will enable network providers to take their optical and wireless networks to all the parts of the country and to enable real-time applications for millions of users. This year culminates some longstanding efforts of STL, in terms of building a global ecosystem to develop world-class wired and wireless programmable access solutions and bringing them to market.”
IMC 2020, scheduled to be held virtually from December 8, 2020 to December 10, 2020 will highlight the journey from smart devices to a smarter world, safe and secure technology and breakthroughs in the domain, easy and inclusive tech adoption and environmentally sustainable futuristic tech. The theme is further sub-divided into 5 categories: 5G, IoT, Robotics, AI and VR. There will be virtual product demonstrations, industry meetings, conference sessions, roundtables and business interactions with industry giants.
