Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Thursday that the quite anticipated auction for the 5G spectrum is likely to take place around April-May next year.
Speaking at the ‘Times Now Summit 2021’, the minister spoke about his aspirations of benchmarking India’s telecom sector regulation with the global best. He stated, “We will come with a series of reforms in this, such that the global benchmark of regulations is achieved in India”.
While relief measures announced in September this year for telecom operators marked the first set of reforms, the government will bring out a series of further reforms and “telecom regulatory structure should change in coming 2-3 years”, Vaishnaw added.
On the timeline for 5G auctions, Vaishnaw noted that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which looks at the structure of auctions, is undergoing consultations on the matter.
“I think they will submit their report by February-mid is what we are thinking, maybe February-end, maximum to maximum March. Immediately after that, we will have the auctions,” he said.
Earlier the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had scheduled the 5G auctions by the end of the current fiscal. The shift of dates would provide major relief to several telecom players.
“Giving a specific timeline for the upcoming auction will be difficult at this stage since much depends on the time Trai will take to finalise its views,” the minister added.
“But, today, our estimate is by April-May. I was earlier estimating March. But, I think it will take…because consultations are complex, diverse opinions are coming…,” he said.
The government is keen to ensure that auctions are technology-neutral, and wants to give a spectrum that is consistent for many years to come.
“So, 4G can be used in that, 5G can be used. So, that’s the thinking based on not just short term but more like thinking at least 5-10 years ahead,” he said.
It may be recalled that the DoT had approached Trai seeking its recommendations on pricing, quantum and other modalities pertaining to radiowaves in multiple bands, as it prepares the groundwork for holding 5G spectrum auction in the coming months.
The last round of spectrum auction, held in March this year, had raked-in winning bids of over Rs 77,800 crore for 855.6 MHz of spectrum.
Vaishnaw said that with major reforms for telcos outlined in September, the government expects the industry to focus on stepping up investments by 2-4 times, reaching out to the unconnected and improving service quality.
“See call drops…classic case, call drops because the investment in the sector is very less, that investment has to step up to 2-4 X. That’s what we need,” he said.
The telecom regulatory structure should change in the coming 2-3 years, and the “first fundamental change” has already happened, he said pointing to the sectoral reforms unveiled recently.
“In fact, the industry is saying that whatever has been done in the September reforms, that itself they are taking some time to absorb and adjust according to that, because business plans will have to change the entire fundamental structure of the industry will have to change,” he said.
Speaking about the future telecom he noted, “All along we have imported technology. Today, our entire network works on somebody else’s.
So, the fundamental change which will happen is 4G, 5G and 6G this entire technology stack, the hardware as well as software, both will be developed in India, proven in India, then used all over the world,” he informed.
“That vision has been achieved for 4G already, and 70-75 per cent of work has been done for the 5G stack. By February, we should have the entire 5G software stack ready.”