Government must keep 5G spectrum fee low; faster rollout to have greater impact: Airtel

"I will say the multiplier impact a faster, high-speed, low-latency network can have for a country is more than what can be achieved by picking up some money upfront," he added.

In the past, telcos have complained about high reserve prices being a deterrent, and the high cost for spectrum has been called out as one of the reasons why the telecom industry has been in a poor financial position for the last few years.

About the proliferation of private and unregulated cryptocurrencies, Mittal said such instruments pose a "serious problem" and backed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's plea at a global forum in Washington for a concerted response. Mittal, whose company also runs a payments bank, said there are issues around KYC with such currencies, but said that the technology should be protected against harsh actions like a blanket ban.

"...There may be some very hard actions by the nation, states to make it (cryptocurrencies) not legal going forward. That needs to be protected. It is a fine technology, it needs to be protected for the use of mankind so it can be a safe, very easily traceable type of ecosystem of money, but for that governments need to catch up," he said.

Mittal, who also aims at offering satellite-based connectivity through a neo-constellation of satellites, said the roll outs in Alaska and Canada have been successful, and added that far-off places in India like the areas near the China border, forests of Gir or the Himalayan mountains require such a technology for connecting people. He said terrestrial radio networks cannot reach up to 10 percent of Indian population, which can be connected through the satellites.

Also Read: Telecom operators owe Rs 1.65 lakh crore to govt in AGR dues: Devusinh Chauhan

Speaking at the same event, V Vaidyanathan of private sector lender IDFC First Bank said India is in the "magic quadrant" where the strength of the government can ensure reforms. Vaidyanathan said, "In the course of this process, we have to really think about how to deal with the situation where a small affected minority can affect the progress and benefit of a much larger group on the basis of disturbing the overall ecosystem or disturbing the process."

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur, who also spoke at the event, said over 25,000 laws and rules affecting businesses were repealed last year and added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked his ministerial colleagues to decriminalise certain aspects.