Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while announcing the budget this year had said that the roll out of 5G network in India will take place in the financial year 2022-2023. Now, a new report suggests that the auction for 5G spectrum will take place sometime in April and May 2022.
PTI reports that 5G spectrum auction will take place in India in May this year if the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) submits its recommendations on the rules regarding the auction process. “Trai has indicated that they will send it (recommendations) by March. Thereafter, it will take us a month to make a decision around it,” Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman told the news agency, adding that it will take DoT another one month to start 5G auction in India. In total, it will take the DoT two months from the day it receives TRAI’s recommendations to start 5G spectrum auction in India.
As a part of the process, TRAI will share its recommendations on a host of facets pertaining to 5G spectrum in India, which includes 5G spectrum price, size of the 5G spectrum, method for allocating the spectrum, and payment terms among other things. These recommendations will be submitted after the government body holds consultations with various stakeholders including the telecom service providers.
The telecom secretary said that the DoT has already selected MSTC as the auctioneer for the upcoming 5G auctions. In addition to that TRAI has given participants in 5G spectrum consultation to submit their additional comments by February 15, post which it will review their comments and suggestions and come up with recommendations for the 5G spectrum auction in the country. Telecom operators have suggested up to 95% cut in the spectrum frequency band price in India.
Separately, the Union Communication and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw earlier this month had said that the airlines won’t face any interference when the 5G network is rolled out in the country. “In the US, especially in the older aircraft, the altimeters’ frequency is close to the one being used to render 5G services,” Vaishnaw had told ET Telecom adding that the frequency used by altimeters in India is different from the one that is being auctioned for rolling out 5G services in India, which is why airlines won’t face any interference.
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