The next round of telecom spectrum auctions will be possible only towards the second half of next year, Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, DoT, has said. The government expects to put in place the ecosystem for 5G services by then.
“TRAI has given a preliminary recommendations, which the working committee at the Department of Telecommunications is looking at. The task force has also given a broader set of (spectrum) bands on which we have to work,” Sundararajan told reporters here on the sidelines of an event here.
Most of the operators too are of the opinion that the auctions should happen once the ecosystem is ready, she said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a workshop with States and Union Territories, Sundararajan, however, did not specify when exactly the auctions would take place. “What we are saying is that the ecosystem for 5G services will be ready by the second half of next year, so we will be ready for the spectrum auctions for them. I am here talking only about 5G, and other spectrum auctions can happen simultaneously,” she explained.
Trials in four States
She also said that preliminary trials will soon start in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
TRAI had recently recommended auction of about 8,644 MHz of telecom radiowaves with estimated base price of around ₹4.9 lakh crore, including frequencies of 5G services.
The 5G committee of the Telecom Ministry has said about 6,000 MHz of spectrum can be made available without delay for next-gen mobile services. According to the National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP-2018), the 5G services can bring in $120-billion in additional revenue for the government annually and create four-million new jobs by 2022.
The policy also targets to triple the mobile towers to 50 lakh by 2022 from around 18 lakh right now. However, ‘right of way’ remains a concern and the government will work with State governments on this, she said.
Meanwhile, Sundararajan said there will be a lot of discussions around the NDCP in the next few days as AJ Paulraj, the Stanford University professor who is heading the ‘High Level Forum’ on 5G, is here in India.
Also, there will be a Telecom Commission meet on Thursday to discuss various issues relating to BharatNet and broadband, she added.