The government is prepared for the first commercial launch of 5G by August this year as the spectrum auctions are expected to be completed by early June, said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Telecommunications and IT, on Thursday.
BusinessLine had reported in its June 27, 2021, edition that India’s 5G network would ride on technology and hardware developed by local companies,and is slated for commercial launch on August 15 by the Prime Minister, to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Independence.
He said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is working as per expected timeline, and the process is on to resolve industry concerns around spectrum pricing. A meeting of the Digital Communications Committee (DCC) is also expected in the next five days for the approval of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the reserved prices and concerns of the telecom industry. DCC is the highest decision-making body of the telecom sector.
“We were waiting for the TRAI’s recommendations. Some prices have been revised, and we are expecting approval of the DCC in the next 5-6 days and, as per process, we are very much as per our timeline to conduct the auction…more or less we are on track for the commercial roll out of the first 5G service in August-September,” said Vaishnaw.
TRAI had recently recommended a mega auction plan of over ₹7.5-lakh crore for over 1-lakh megahertz spectrum in case the government allocates it for a period of 30 years. In case of 20 years, the total value of the proposed spectrum auction will stand at around ₹5.07-lakh crore at the reserve price, according to the back-of-the-envelope calculation.
While the regulator has reduced spectrum price by about 39 per cent, compared to last price, telecom service providers (TSPs) have said that the recommended rates are still higher than global benchmarks.
When asked about the average revenue per user (ARPU), which is also lowest in the world, and if the government is doing anything to help the TSPs, Vaishnaw reiterated that the ARPU is one of the lowest in India, at around $2.5, compared to $20-40 in other countries, but the government cannot support anyone for that.
On the Cabinet approval of Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) project for upgrading 2G mobile services to 4G at security sites in the naxal hit or Left Wing Extremism (LWE) areas, he said the government will upgrade around 2,400 towers, then 6,000 towers in the second phase and in the third phase it will put up one-lakh towers.
The technological upgradation will enable better Internet and data services in these LWE areas. According to industry veterans, it will also fulfil the communication needs of the security personnel deployed in these areas.
“The proposal is in line with providing mobile connectivity in rural areas. In addition, delivery of various e-governance services, banking services, tele-medicine and tele-education, through mobile broadband shall be possible in these areas,” said Rajiv Mehrotra, Chairman Vihaan Networks.
Published on
April 28, 2022
