India to hold spectrum auction for 5G services

The Indian government has approved a proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct a spectrum auction through which spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders for providing 5G services to the public and enterprises, an official statement said Wednesday.

The spectrum auction is expected to be held by July-end.

A total of 72,097.85 MHz of spectrum with a validity period of 20 years will be put to auction.

The auction will be held for spectrum in various frequency bands, such as Low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), Mid (3300 MHz) and High (26 GHz), said the statement.

Spectrum is an integral and necessary part of the entire 5G ecosystem. The upcoming 5G services have the potential to create new age businesses, generate additional revenue for enterprises, and provide employment arising from the deployment of innovative use-cases and technologies.

It is expected that the Mid and High band spectrum will be utilized by telecom service providers to roll out 5G technology-based services capable of providing speed and capacities which would be about 10 times higher than what is possible through the current 4G services.

According to the statement, presently there are 800 million subscribers in India having access to broadband connectivity, compared to 100 million subscribers in 2014.

Digital connectivity has been an important part of policy initiatives of the federal government through its flagship programs such as Digital India, Start-up India.

Broadband, especially mobile broadband, has become an integral part of the daily lives of citizens. This received a big boost through the rapid expansion of 4G services across the country.