Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s recommendation to assign 5G spectrum to private enterprises is not a threat to the Indian telecom operators, according to latest insights by US-based broadband speed tester Ookla.
TRAI recommendations are in line with other 5G markets like France, the US, Germany, Japan, and the UK, and Indian telecoms should not see this proposal as a threat.
On the consumer side, the rollout of 5G services will boost Indian mobile performance to a potential 10x increase in median download speeds (5G vs 4G LTE). 5G will also deliver socioeconomic benefits in India, on account of a number of 5G use cases that could enable new applications across all sectors.
5G and 5G Standalone will offer the benefits related to eMBB (enhanced Mobile Broadband), massive IoT and critical IoT to Indian enterprises, allowing better control over their networks with an attractive benefit of the increased security offered by isolating their data from public networks.
Among various sectors that stands to benefit from 5G are the manufacturing sector, representing 20 percent of the total benefit along with Retail, ICT and Agriculture.
Indian telecoms should leverage the ongoing buzz around the 5G spectrum to get enterprises interested in digitalization and closely work with them to enable various 5G use cases applications across all sectors.
COAI, which represents telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio, has criticized TRAI’s move to allocate 5G spectrum for private enterprise networks.
Industry bodies have hailed the TRAI recommendations of around 35-40 percent cut in the reserve price for 5G spectrum for mobile services, terming it historic and which can finally put India on the world 5G map.
The telecom regulator has put forward a mega auction plan valued at over Rs 7.5 trillion at the base price allocated over 30 years.
TRAI has mooted the concept of sharing of spectrum between the satellite and 5G industry in a harmonious manner.
The entire gamut of available spectrum in 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300-3670 MHz and 24.25-28.5 GHz spectrum bands has been recommended by the TRAI to be put to auction.
In future auctions, access spectrum will be assigned for a period of 30 years as against 20 years now as per TRAI recommendations on 5G spectrum.
