'Start of a new era for Indian Telecom': Ashwini Vaishnaw post Cabinet's 5G auction nod

As the Union Cabinet approved the modalities for holding 5G spectrum auctions, Union Minister for Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Thursday tweeted and called it the "beginning of a new era for Indian Telecom". The Cabinet also decided to enable the development and setting up of 'Private Captive Networks' to spur a wave of innovation in new-age industry applications such as machine-to-machine communications, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) across automotive, healthcare, agriculture, energy, and other sectors.

Cabinet approves auction of 5G Spectrum

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved a proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct the spectrum auction through which spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders for providing 5G services to the public and enterprises, stated the government press release.

Digital connectivity has been an important part of policy initiatives of the Government of India through its flagship programmes such as Digital India, Start-up India, Make in India etc. With the help of such pathbreaking policy initiatives, the Government has been able to promote access to mobile banking, online education, telemedicine, e-Ration etc. to Antyoday families.

A total of 72097.85 MHz of spectrum with a validity period of 20 years will be put to auction to be held by the end of July 2022. The auction will be held for spectrum in various Low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), Mid (3300 MHz) and High (26 GHz) frequency bands.

The Cabinet announced various progressive options with regard to the spectrum auction, for facilitating ease of doing business in order to continue the pace of telecom sector reforms. 

"For the first time ever, there is no mandatory requirement to make upfront payment by the successful bidders. Payments for spectrum can be made in 20 equal annual instalments to be paid in advance at the beginning of each year. This is expected to significantly ease cash flow requirements and lower the cost of doing business in this sector," the Centre informed. 

The bidders will also be given an option to surrender the spectrum after 10 years with no future liabilities with respect to balance instalments. The availability of a sufficient backhaul spectrum is also necessary to enable the roll-out of 5G services. To meet the backhaul demand, the Cabinet has decided to provisionally allot 2 carriers of 250 MHz each in E-band to the Telecom Service Providers. The Cabinet also decided to double the number of traditional Microwave backhaul carriers in the existing frequency bands of 13, 15, 18 and 21 GHz bands.

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