India get go ahead for 5G spectrum auction

India today gave the green signal to conduct 5G spectrum auction for telecom services by July-end and abolish the need for upfront payment for purchasing airwaves.

"The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved a proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct a spectrum auction through which spectrum will be assigned to successful bidders for providing 5G services to public and enterprises," an official statement said.

The 5G services, to be rolled out soon, will be about 10 times faster than 4G, it said.

To help the successful bidders of the 5G spectrum, the buyers can make the payment in 20 easy monthly instalments, according to the statement.

A total of 72097.85 MHz of spectrum with 20 years of validity will be auctioned by July-end.

The auction for 5G spectrum 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, according to the statement.

Pressing ahead with the pace of telecom sector reforms, the Cabinet also announced various options with regard to the spectrum auction for facilitating ease of doing business.

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 statement said.

The Cabinet also decided to enable the setting up and development of 'private captive networks' to drive a wave of innovation in new-age industry applications such as machine-to-machine communications, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) across automotive, healthcare, agriculture, energy, and other sectors.

In India, broadband, especially mobile broadband, received a big boost through the rapid expansion of 4G services across the country since 2015. Eighty crore subscribers have access to broadband today compared to ten crore subscribers in 2014.