Reliance Jio urges government to shut down 2G, 3G services in the country. Here’s what you should know

Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio has urged the central government to completely shut down 2G and 3G networks in the country to avoid unnecessary costs and migrate all customers to 4G and 5G networks. Jio's comments came in response to a consultation paper titled 'Digital Transformation through 5G Ecosystem' published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

While strongly urging for the shutdown of 2G and 3G services in the country, Jio noted, "The Government should come out with a policy and glidepath for closing down the 2G and 3G networks completely so that unnecessary network costs should be avoided, and all customers can be migrated to 4G and 5G services. This will also give great impetus to developing ecosystem to 5G use cases."

“There is no doubt that the 5G services, its ecosystem and use cases will play most crucial role in driving digital transformation across various industries by providing faster and more reliable connectivity. 5G with its faster data speeds, increased bandwidth, and lower latency, will provide businesses and innovators with the connectivity and capabilities that can give wings to their dreams,” the telecom operator added. 

Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea also commented about the issue in its reply to TRAI in the same consulting paper. VI noted that penetration of 5G in the low-income groups is a big challenge owing to the abundance of 2G/3G enabled smartphones in the country and high costs of 5G phones.

"A substantial part of the citizens in the country are generally using older technology i.e. 2G and are not able to access the new generation technology i.e. 4G and 5G despite availability of connectivity. The inability of users to switch to smartphones on account of the cost of these devices, also leads to the users continuing on older technology and hence, not using digital services and most likely ending up being not updated on latest digital technologies and services."

The telecom operator has suggested that the government should start providing subsidies for people to give up their feature phones and start using 5G-enabled smartphones which will help bridge the digital divide in the country.