Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal to share dais at India Mobile Congress

New Delhi: Heads of the country's top telecom firms will be seen sharing dais during the India Mobile Congress from October 25-27, where these telcos are expected to discuss critical issues facing the industry.

According to the event schedule, Reliance Jio Chairman Mukesh Ambani and Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal are going to be part of the inaugural session on October 25. Vodafone Idea Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla is also expected to join the session.

"Promoters of all three telecom operators are going to participate in IMC," Industry body COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews told PTI. Mathews said chief technology officers and chief marketing officers of leading telecom operators are expected to discuss various business proposals at the event.

The second edition of the three-day India Mobile Congress will focus on BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) region telecom sector. Mathews said that delegates from the US, Canada, UK and European Union too have confirmed participation in the upcoming IMC.

"We have Mobile World Congress in Barcelona but not everyone can go there. There is no big event in South Asia and South East Asia to showcase potential of the telecom sector and encourage development of technology. This time, we have global speakers like FCC (US telecom regulator) Chairman Ajit Pai, European Commision Vice President Andrus Ansip, (and) leaders from BIMSTEC countries," Mathews said.

He said that the government will be more involved in the IMC to meet delegates and industry officers who want to reach out them. "Telecom Minsiter (Manoj Sinha) and DoT secretary (Aruna Sundararajan) will be meeting people at IMC at pre-fixed schedule. Department of Science and Technology will engage with IMC to connect with innovators. We are trying if any fund from government can be made available for select start-ups at the event," he added.

Around 300 exhibitors, 2,500 delegates and 10,000 visitors are expected to participate in the event. "We have shortlisted 250 startups. We will work out with Department of Science and Technology to find out if any of their fund can be made available to the best startups," Mathews said.

The COAI will start its own business-to-consumer exhibition from this edition of the IMC with participation from Samsung, Huawei and Nokia. "We have reached out to university and colleges where they have specialised interest in telecom sector. At IMC they will get live exposure to industry people and look at advance technologies and accordingly shape their career," the director general said.

Live demonstration of 5G will take place at the event, machine-to-machine communications, IoT and other latest technology are scheduled for demonstration at the event, Mathews said.