The Indian Mobile Congress — or IMC 2024 — was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday along with the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) 2024. The annual digital technology forum saw several milestones in the areas of mobile connectivity, broadband deployment communication and expansion of the fiber optic network were emphasized by the Prime Minister. During this week, IMC 2024 will be attended by telecom operators such as Reliance Jio and Airtel, as well as technology companies such as Xiaomi and Qualcomm.
Inaugurating the 8th India Mobile Congress, Prime Minister Modi said that India now has 1.2 billion mobile users and more than 950 million Internet users, and the country accounts for more than 40 percent of global real-time digital transactions.
“India leads the world in data availability, where data costs as little as Rs 12 per GB, while many countries charge 10-12 times more,” PM Modi said, adding that 5G network coverage has expanded to all regions of the country, and the optical fiber network has been significantly expanded over the past 10 years, covering eight times the distance between the Moon and the Earth.
Another area highlighted by the Prime Minister was the increase in the production of smartphones in the country. The prime minister also pointed to investments in semiconductor technology, as well as efforts to make phones completely “Made in India”, including components such as processors.
Meanwhile, Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Mittal shared details of Airtel’s newly introduced anti-spam technology, which is designed to block scam calls and scam messages to protect users. “We are now working with the industry as well as the Department of Telecommunications to ensure that our people are safe when they use these networks and all these services,” Mittal added.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) promoter Kumar Mangalam Birla said on Tuesday that the beleaguered telecom operator’s capex cycle was triggered by its initial public offering (FPO), where it reportedly received bids worth Rs. 90,000 crore, enabling Vi to announce new equity deals with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung.
“At Vi, we help MSMEs overcome barriers and enter new markets with the help of 5G, IoT, AI and cloud technologies. Thanks to our Vi Business ReadyForNext program, more than 1.6 million MSMEs are now ready for the future. As we build a world where virtual and augmented reality become part of everyday life, we remain committed to empowering small businesses to lead India’s digital growth,” said Birla.
Reliance Jio Chairman Akash Ambani advocated data localization at IMC 2024. “The scale and speed of multilingual data creation in India, fueling the AI revolution, will grow exponentially. We ask the government to speed up the update of the 2020 project. Data center policy that Indian data should stay in Indian data centers,” he said.
At IMC 2024, Jio also announced the launch of two new feature phones with 4G connectivity, the JioBharat V3 and the JioBharat V4. The phones come a year after the JioBharat V3 was launched in India and offer internet access as well as the company’s digital services including JioPay and JioCinema.