The recently held auction for the 5G spectrum reflects the confidence and sentiment of the Indian telecom industry in government policies, said Union Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan. He also said that the process for the rollout of the 5G will be at an advanced stage by the end of this year. He said this while addressing the inaugural event of the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU’s) Regional Standardization Forum (RSF) for the Asia and Oceania region to mark the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ event.
The minister said that India’s policy in the field of telecommunications is based on three pillars — Ease of Doing Business, Ease of Living, and Atma Nirbhar Bharat. “Today, the Indian telecommunications network, is the second largest in the world, with the most cost-effective rates. This growth has been spurred, by the market-friendly policies of the Modi Government,” the minister said. After 40 rounds and 7 straight days of bidding, the highly-anticipated 5G spectrum auction concluded on August 1, fetching over Rs 1.50 trillion, higher than the government’s expectations. Leading telecom operators Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) and Bharti Airtel (Airtel) emerged as the top bidders at the recently concluded spectrum auction. Reliance Jio, Adani group, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea were the four major participants in the spectrum auction. Allocation of spectrums to the telecom operators is expected before August 15, and the initial 5G services in the country will start subsequently in several Indian cities.
“By the end of this year, we are likely to see indigenously developed, and manufactured 5G stack, getting deployed, in rolling out 5G network in India. Our engineers have developed, a set of 5G standards, which will facilitate the spread of 5G network in rural areas,” the minister said. 5G is the fifth-generation mobile network capable of transmitting a large set of data at a very rapid speed. In comparison to 3G and 4G, 5G has a very low latency which will enhance user experiences in various sectors. Low latency describes the efficiency to process a very high volume of data messages with a minimal delay. 5G services are expected to be about 10 times faster than 4G. The 5G rollout is also expected to bring more development in remote data monitoring in sectors such as mining, warehousing, telemedicine, and manufacturing, among others.