Indian telecom industry's gross revenues to reach Rs 4 lakh crore by 2026: DoT's Manish Sinha

The telecom sector gross revenues are expected to reach Rs 4 lakh crore mark this year or next year on the back of technology development like 5G which is bringing new subscribers and business as well as generating better returns, a senior official of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said today.

Speaking during the eighth edition of the ETTelecom 5G summit, Manish Sinha, Member Finance at DoT said for 30 years, the telecom sector has been a story of continuous technological innovation, development, continuous growth in terms of bringing new subscribers, bringing new business and generating better returns.

“There have been ups and downs in the last 30 years, but returns have come around in flying colours as I can say today that the industry is inching towards the Rs 4 lakh crore mark,” Sinha said.

Evidently, the telecom sector revenues are growing at a good speed, probably growing at a speed that GDP is growing in the country.

When it comes to 5G, the country has seen the fastest rollout and the government has been supporting the sector in providing help in reducing regulatory burden like through the 2021 telecom reforms, which partly helped the telcos to fund the 5G rollout.

“But now there are question marks as to how to continue with that speed of capex, largely because all these investments also require a return. Capital is very fickle, it tends to come and go away depending on the return that you actually give to that money that is invested,” Sinha quipped.

To support the sector, the government in various ways, is helping the sector like through ease of business rules, in freeing up capital for the sector, ensuring that there are lesser regulatory burdens on the operators and also in some way filling up the gaps in supporting those operators that have not been able to compete in this market.

“Through our public sector initiative of BSNL, the government has been investing cash to ensure that BSNL also comes to be marked to be able to make a foray in 5G technology,” he said.

The government believes that to make this 5G growth inclusive, it is necessary that all of them prosper. The communication minister has stated that the government will continue to support all operators, so that they are able to enter the field of 5G.

About the monetisation of 5G, Sinha said when the technology was introduced, it was understood the 4G was driven by video boom and the data boom, so some of it will continue into the 5G and I think a lot of it is still driving the 5G growth.

“But we were looking at significant growth in the enterprise business. And that is where probably this convergence of AI and IoT, in terms of making processes more productive…those are areas that need to be looked into and I hope in the very near future we will be able to make some kill, some new applications in these areas which will integrate AI and IoT into the existing service delivery ecosystem,” he said.

Sinha added it is very important that the end user sees significant value addition in what is being offered in terms of products, in terms of AI and IoT and for that innovation needs to match any investment.

“That is why so much attention now on research and development, on test labs, the government itself is putting a lot of effort into enhancing capacities for research and development within the country,” he said.

Sinha said research and development helps in building new standards, new protocols and eventually, it will lead to new products that lead to greater or maybe separate revenue streams on the same network.

“The network is ready, innovation on the edge will lead to greater revenue streams,” he said.