‘5G to create 80,000 direct jobs, attract Rs 3-lakh crore investment’

The Centre has come out with a draft of the Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022 that aims to bring in reforms and consolidate existing laws. The telecom department is addressing the regulator’s concerns around some clauses of the bill and is in a dialogue with the industry and opposition leaders on all aspects, Minister of Communications, Ashwini Vaishnaw told ET’s Muntazir Abbas. The minister for railways and information technology, Vaishnaw also said the DoT plans to offer only alight-touch regulation for OTT communication players. He expects BSNL’s 4G services to be rolled out by January, 2023, and 5G services by August next year. Edited excerpts: