In an attempt to take a leap towards the digital revolution, 5G services will be rolled out for the people of Himachal Pradesh by the end of this year, said Information and Technology (IT) Secretary Dr Abhishek Jain.

He said this after a meeting with Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), representatives of department IT, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), HPSEBL and Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) late evening on Wednesday.

The state government is according utmost priority to the telecom sector under the visionary leadership of the Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and is committed to cover the unconnected villages, shadow areas and the tribal belts of the State with seamless connectivity in shape of 5G, said Jain.

“In coordination with the telecom service providers, we are going to achieve the target by the year end, by facilitating the service providers and getting them all clearances and approvals on fast track basis,” said Jain.

Terming ‘data as new oil’, Jain said that digital revolution was the need of the hour to make all the segments work with efficiency and momentum which is not possible without the development of telecommunication sector and 5G services.

The representatives of the service providers, particularly the JIO, AIRTEL, BSNL, and Department of Telecommunications, who were present in the meeting ensured upon figuring out the mechanism that would have least harm to the flora and fauna and least inconvenience to the public while installing the underground 5G optical infrastructure.

It was suggested in the meeting that all the service providers must coordinate and execute the installation work at one go so that there is no need to dig out the earth time and again.

The service providers also requested for new amendments in the state policy for faster adoption of 5G and said that the street furniture availability will certainly play an important role in launching 5G services.

Jain said that quality infrastructure was the need of the hour and the main advantages of the 5G will be its greater speed in the transmissions, a lower latency and greater capacity of remote execution.

The Digital Infrastructure Providers Association also shared their views on the occasion to be followed by the stakeholder department.

The DIPA was asked to share its report on the pilot project conducted in Kerela.

The IT Department also gave a presentation defining policies for installation of 5G service in the state.