India to get 5G services very soon

India will get 5G services very soon. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally approved the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) 5G spectrum auction through which spectrum will be allocated to bidders to provide 5G services to the public and businesses.

The cabinet claims that the 5G network will provide speed and capacity that would be around 10 times higher than what is possible through current 4G services.

A total auction of 72097.85 MHz of spectrum with a validity of 20 years will be auctioned by the end of July, which is expected to take place at the end of July 2022. Ashwini Vaishnav, Minister of Telecommunications and IT, said that the "auction of spectrum announced today is an integral part of the development of the BharatKa5G ecosystem."

In an official statement, PIB detailed that the "auction will be held by spectrum in various Low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), Medium (3300 MHz) and High (26 MHz) GHz) frequency bands".

The spectrum auction is said to benefit from telecoms sector reforms announced in September 2021. The reforms include zero spectrum use charges (SUC) on spectrum purchased in the upcoming auction, providing significant relief. to service providers in terms of the operating cost of telecommunications networks

The cabinet also said that for the very first time "there is no mandatory requirement to make upfront payment by the successful bidders." Payments for spectrum can be made in 20 equal annual instalments to be paid in advance at the beginning of each year. "The bidders would be given an option to surrender the spectrum after 10 years with no future liabilities with respect to balance instalments," the Modi government said in an official statement.

"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 Cabinet also decided to double the number of traditional Microwave backhaul carriers in the existing frequency bands of 13, 15, 18 and 21 GHz bands," the release added.