Telecos Giants Request DoT To Extend 5G Trials By One Year
Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have requested the Department of Telecommunications for a one-year extension to conduct the 5G trials. Hopes in favour of reducing the prices set for the 5G spectrum.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio have separately requested the Department of Telecommunications for a one-year extension on 5G spectrum trials. This announcement comes at a time the whole country is looking forward to advancing to the future with 5G networks.
So why would all the three telecom operators decide to extend their much-awaited trials for a whole year? Let’s dig into some of the speculations.
As per the DoT fixed prices, the minimum of 5G spectrum in the 3.3-3.6 GHz band would come to Rs 50,000 crore. With the current situation prevailing, wherein the telecos are trying hard to minimise costs and achieve more financial stability, this price is on the higher side for any of them to afford.
The further expansion plans to dive into the 5G spectrum and ongoing trials will be feasible only if these prices are lowered. All the three telecom companies have expectations of the Government lowering the prices in the next set of recommendations.
The request for the one-year extension was put in as the permit provided to the telecom companies are coming to an end on November 26th. After receiving the trial radio waves, the operators were supposed to complete the trials by November. And although several initiatives delved into 5G development, the companies were unable to complete their plans. Earlier this year, Airtel conducted 5G test trials and Jio had joined forces with Spirent to validate cloud-native Jio 5G SA core network
If the DoT officials give their permission, the 5G spectrum auctions will be held during the second half of 2022.
Though the extension will prove to be a relief for the telecom operators, this would also mean that India will be far behind other countries in the 5G spectrum network expansion. It is now up to the Government of India to decide whether the prices will go down and when the auctions will be held.