BHUBANESWAR: Union communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan here on Thursday launched 5G services in Odisha. Bhubaneswar and Cuttack received 5G service. Other cities will be covered in a phased manner.
Vaishnaw said the whole Odisha will be covered in two years. The charges for 5G services will not be high. “There will be not much difference in charges between 4G service and 5G services,” said the communications minister, adding, “The ministry of education has approved an independent course on 5G for engineering students.”
On Odisha’s poor tele-density, Vaishnaw said prime minister Narendra Modi has sanctioned a telecom package worth Rs 5600 crore for Odisha. Installation of telecom towers in rural areas is a part of the package. Besides, Rs 1080 crore will be utilized to connect the villages with optical fiber cables, he added.
The Centre has a target to provide high quality wireless telecom connectivity in rural areas too. The duo also inaugurated 100 telecom towers in tribal dominated districts like Koraput, Kandhamal and Malkangir. Within 18 months, 5000 towers will be installed in Odisha to cover 7,000 villages, said Vaishnaw.
“If we get help from the state government, we can connect each village and school with optical cable for high quality broadband service. We will immediately install towers after we get land from the Odisha government,” said the communications minister.
On improvement of 4G services, Vaishnaw said the internet or call services of telecom operators have been improved drastically after the companies received spectrums.
Pradhan said the 5G service will be a gamechanger for the state. “State like Odisha will get benefit in the education and health sector due to 5G services. It will bring a new era in the field of communications. By using this service, youths can get training and create enterprises of their own instead of running after jobs,” he added.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was also signed during the program between SOA and the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) with an objective of developing skilled manpower in the domains of interest such as management and emerging technologies through the participatory mode.
Facilities of STPI will be created at Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Berhampur, Koraput, Balasore, Angul, Jajpur and Sambalpur to provide training to youths. These facilities will be ready by December 31 this year.
A separate MoU was signed between SOA and Jio to set up a 5G Lab here. It will help the youths to become industry ready by taking training and learning through 5G.
