The 5G spectrum auctions have finally started in India, bringing us closer to a country-wide 5G rollout. The 5G auctions are said to be concluded over the next few days by the end of this month. Over 72 GHz of Spectrum with a validity period of 20 years has been put to auction. The auction will be held for spectrum in various Low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), Mid (3300 MHz) and High (26 GHz) frequency bands. The government claims that 5G will be about 10 times faster than 4G in India.
If you are wondering as to when 5G services will be available for end users in the country then the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had earlier said that 5G internet services will be rolled out in India in 2022. It goes without saying that 5G will not be available across India immediately. Some regions will get 5G first while it may take years before 5G will reach all corners of India. For the record, there are still places in India where 4G connectivity is not available and it was just last week Pangong Lake in Ladakh region got 4G connectivity for the first time, thanks to Jio.
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13 CITIES THAT MAY BE THE FIRST TO GET 5G CONNECTIVITY IN INDIA
According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), 13 cities across the country will get 5G in the beginning. These 13 cities are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune.
While we have no information about which telecom operator will be the first to commercially roll out 5G services in India, all the three leading telecom operators like Jio, Airtel and Vi (Vodafone Idea) have already set up trial sites in these cities.
DoT has already partnered with eight agencies for the Indigenous 5G (/topic/5g) Test bed project started in 2018 and is set to be completed by December 31, 2021. These agencies are Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER) and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT).
The government is also looking at measures to reduce the cost of doing business for Telecom Service Providers. The spectrum auction will be benefitted by the Telecom Sector Reforms announced in September, 2021. The reforms include zero Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) on the spectrum acquired in the upcoming auction, providing a significant relief to the service providers in terms of the operating cost of telecom networks. Further, the requirement of submitting a financial bank guarantee equivalent to one annual instalment has also been done away with.
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