Many countries want to replicate India’s digital infra model: Sunil Mittal
“Country after country as well as World Bank, United Nations, WTO, Africa Union, European Union, G20, BRICS, everyone is chanting that the digital infrastructure that India has built can accelerate the world economy, especially in those countries which have lack of infrastructure,” Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal said during the inauguration of India Mobile Congress.
He also stressed about the success India has achieved in manufacturing, particularly digital infrastructure in the last few years.
“I spoke about it last year that manufacturing of the scale and size which we want may not happen in India during my lifetime. But I realised that India is moving fast,” Mittal said.
He highlighted that companies ranging from Apple to Dixon to Samsung and Tata’s, every company, be it small or big, are getting into manufacturing and India is emerging as a world leader in manufacturing, especially digital infrastructure.
Talking about 5G rollout, Mittal said Airtel has been rolling out the latest technology at a fast pace. “We have covered 5000 towns and 20000 villages with Airtel 5G.
By March 2024, we would have covered the entire country with 5G.
This will be truly the fastest rollout anywhere in the world,” he said.
On the call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to connect all the villages with mobile towers by March 2024, Mittal said they will ensure to do that.
“We are putting in a lot of efforts along with the DoT through the USOF fund to go to North East, to go to border areas, to go to those difficult villages,” Mittal said.
He touched upon the option of satellite connectivity available these days to connect all the rural areas.
