India to host World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly next year: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw. (File)

India will host the World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly next year in a bid to advance 5G and 6G networks in the country, said Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on October 27.

Vaishnaw, speaking at the inaugural session of the seventh India Mobile Congress, said that the World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly (WTSA) is the governing conference of the ITU Standardisation Sector (ITU-T), one of the three world conferences of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and, as such, part of the United Nations system.

The conference is held every four years, and the last WTSA was held in Geneva, Switzerland. It defines the next study period for the ITU-T.

Vaishnaw also said that the 5Gi standards developed in India have now been recognized by the ITU as one of the three 5G technologies.

Vaishnaw praised PM Narendra Modi for the transformation the telecom sector has undergone in the last few years. "10 years ago, for installing telecom towers, it used to take 230 days. Now it takes 10 days," he said.

Vaishnaw also said that last year the country exported mobiles worth Rs 98,000 crore.