New Delhi: The government on Wednesday approved a proposal to direct allocating airwaves to enterprises, paving the way for them to operate private 5G networks.
The Cabinet approved the proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct an auction through which spectrum will be assigned to bidders for providing 5G services to the public and enterprises.
According to the official statement, the government would auction a total of 72097.85 MHz spectrum with 20 years of validity by July end. The government also said it would hold the 5G spectrum auction by the end of July. The country’s three main carriers, Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries’ Jio, are expected to take part.
The government said the 5G services to be rolled out soon would be about 10 times faster than the current offering under 4G.’
“Spectrum is an integral and necessary part of the entire 5G eco-system. According to the official statement, ” the upcoming 5G services have the potential to create new-age businesses, generate additional revenue for enterprises and provide employment arising from the deployment of innovative use-cases and technologies,” according to the official statement.
“It is expected that Telecom Service Providers will utilise the Mid and High band spectrum to roll out 5G technology-based services capable of providing speed and capacities which would be about 10 times higher than what is possible through the current 4G services,” added the note.
The bidders would be given an option to surrender the spectrum after 10 years with no future liabilities with respect to balance instalments. “The availability of sufficient backhaul spectrum is also necessary to enable the roll-out of 5G services. To meet the backhaul demand, the Cabinet has decided to provisionally allot 2 carriers of 250 MHz each in E-band to the Telecom Service Providers,” the release said.
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