Telcos free to take a call on shutting down 2G services, says DoT
department of telecommunications (DoT) is not keen to intervene in the matter of shutting down of 2G networks, rejecting a call made by Reliance Jio, saying it is a commercial decision to be taken by telecom operators.
«The government does not want to meddle in such affairs. The telcos are free to decide what is best for them,» an official told ET on condition of anonymity. There are around 250-300 million 2G customers in India.
Experts feel that 2G technology is likely to remain mainstream in India at least for the next two-three years as a good number of people still use it, particularly those who can't afford a smartphone. As per industry data, around 50 million 2G phones are sold in a year while there are over 500,000 2G base tower stations in the country, majority owned by Bharti Airtel, followed by Vodafone Idea and state-run BSNL/MTNL.
«Shutting down a technology should be a commercial decision and not decided by the government or the regulator,» said Mahesh Uppal, director at telecom consultancy ComFirst (India).
He said that there is no tangible evidence that 2G is bad for the sector. «There are people who can't afford smartphones and 2G provides an option to them to remain connected.»
Reliance Jio has been seeking government support to shut down 2G networks in India and migrate all the customers to 4G/5G. But experts feel that Jio is in a unique place because it never had 2G while the other telcos used to offer the technology.
«They are entitled to seek shutting down of 2G networks, but it should be
