The countdown to 5G: India awaits the Gen-Next telecom rollout this month!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The Government of India appears to be outpacing the speed of even the radio waves!
It issued letters to telecom players within hours of getting money and asked them to prepare for the launch of the world’s latest telecommunication revolution yet in the country.
The 5G countdown had begun four months ago. It will bring faster data speeds for users and open many new use cases.
In May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first 5G testbed, set up at Rs. 220 crores, to enable startups and industry players to test and validate their products and reduce dependence on foreign facilities. This testbed was developed as a multi-institute collaborative project by eight institutes led by the IIT-Madras.
He also said India would roll out the 6G network by the end of this decade.
For now, however, Airtel is launching 5G this month! Other players will also roll out the Gen-Next telecom services soon.
After collecting a whopping Rs.1.5 lakh crore in India’s biggest ever telecom spectrum auction recently, the Centre on Thursday asked the sectoral players to get ready for the launch of the much-awaited fifth generation (5G) telecommunication revolution in the country.
Issuing spectrum allotment letters to successful bidders, Union Telecommunication Minister Ashwini Vaishnav on Thursday asked telecom service providers (TSPs) to gear up for the 5G launch. For the first time, the Department of Telecom (DoT) issued spectrum assignment letters on the same day the successful bidders of radio waves made upfront payments.
“5G Update: Spectrum assignment letters issued. Requesting TSPs to prepare for 5G launch,” Vaishnav wrote on a social media platform.
The DoT has received nearly Rs. 17,875 crores in the first batch of payments from four service providers, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Adani Data Networks, and Vodafone Idea, for the spectrum they won in a recent auction.
Early in August, India’s biggest ever telecom spectrum auction received a record Rs. 1.5-lakh crore worth of bids, with Reliance chief Mukesh Ambani’s Jio cornering nearly half of all the airwaves sold, with a Rs. 87,946.93 crore bid.
Reacting to the fast speed of the ministry, Bharti Enterprises founder and chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said his company received a spectrum allocation letter within a few hours of making an upfront payment to the DoT.
“In my 30 years of first-hand experience with DoT, this is a first! Business as it should be. Leadership at work-Right at the top and the helm of telecom. What a Change! Change that can transform this nation–power its dreams to be a developed nation,” Mittal said.
Airtel acquired 19,867.8 MHz spectrum by securing a pan-India footprint of 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands and selected the purchase of radio waves in the low and mid-band spectrum for Rs. 43,039.63 crores.
“Airtel paid Rs. 8,312.4 crores towards spectrum dues and was provided the allocation letter for the designated frequency bands within hours. E-band allocation was given along with the spectrum as promised. No fuss, no follow-up, no running around the corridors, and no tall claims. This is the ease of doing business at work in its full glory,” Mittal said.
Airtel announced it would launch the 5G service this month. While the other three telecom operators have opted to make payments in 20 annual installments, Bharti Airtel paid Rs. 8,312.4 crores at once, equivalent to four yearly installments.
Reliance Jio paid Rs. 7,864.78 crores, Vodafone Idea Rs. 1,679.98 crores, and Adani Data Networks Rs. 18.94 crores.
Gautam Adani’s group placed bids worth Rs. 211.86 crores for 400 MHz in a band that is not used for offering public telephony services. He will probably use it in-house, only for his vast business empire.
