5G services to be rolled out next year, in major cities first

5G spectrum auctions will be held ahead of the rollout. Dates are yet to be decided, but the DoT had in September sought recommendations from the telecom sector regulator TRAI on various aspects including the reserve price, band plan, block size, and the quantum of spectrum to be auctioned.

“The process of assignment of frequencies to TSPs (telecom service providers) would be initiated at the earliest possible,” the DoT said in a statement.

“With regard to rollout of 5G services, Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) — M/s Bharti Airtel, M/s Reliance Jio and M/s Vodafone Idea — have established 5G trials sites in Gurugram, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Gandhinagar cities. These metros and big cities would be the first places for launch of 5G services in the country next year,” the statement said.

All three private telecom players, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, have been urging the DoT to lay out a clear roadmap for spectrum allocation and 5G frequency bands, so they are able to plan the rollout of services accordingly.

“The most important thing needed now is clarity on the regulatory side. It is licensing of spectrum to make it available and to make it available on fair and reasonable terms. What that exactly is, has to be determined by each country. There has been discussion on whether the spectrum prices are too costly. I think many things can be done to ensure that there is money to build coverage for the Indian people,” Magnus Ewerbring, chief technology officer for Asia Pacific at Ericsson told The Indian Express in an interview recently.

“As soon as that (regulatory clarity) happens, 5G will go very quickly. The smartphones are ready, the operators are ready. We need clarity on what frequency bands and other terms and conditions,” Ewerbring had said.

The government has recognised spectrum bands of frequency 526-698 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300-3670 MHz and 24.25-28.5 GHz for public as well as private 5G networks.

While public 5G networks will serve telecom users at large, private 5G networks will be used for captive applications in the Industry 4.0 concept, which has been billed as a major use-case of 5G networks.

Industry 4.0 will see sectors such as manufacturing and logistics adopt 5G networks to automate their processes, given the significantly higher speeds and lower latencies with the next generation of telephony.