The Centre has appointed K Rajaraman, as the new secretary in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), replacing Anshu Prakash. K Rajaraman is a Tamil Nadu cadre 1989-batch Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer. He is presently serving as an additional secretary under the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and would take up the new post from October 1st, after Prakash’s retirement on September 30, 2021.
The Telecommunications industry in India is split into the following sub-sectors: Infrastructure, Equipment, Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MNVO), White Space Spectrum, 5G, Telephone service providers and Broadband.
According to GSMA, India is on the path to becoming the second-largest smartphone market globally by 2025, with about 1 billion installed devices. It is required to have 920 million individual mobile subscribers by 2025, including 88 million 5G connections.
Through the last thirteen years, the Indian Telecom Tower industry has seen notable growth. An average of 29,000 new towers has been built per year. It is also predicted that 5G technology will provide nearly $450 billion to the Indian Economy from 2023 to 2040. Currently, 5G Spectrum Trials are being handled in India to secure the proliferation of 5G technology.
The DoT strives for a blend of 100% broadband connectivity in the villages, 55% fiberisation of mobile towers, average broadband speeds of 25 Mbps and 30 lakh km of optic fibre rollouts by December 2022. In December 2024, it is expecting 70% fiberisation of towers, average broadband speeds of 50 Mbps and 50 lakh km of optic fibre rollouts at a pan-India level.
