India's 5G auction is arriving soon

India is finally moving towards 5G auctions, and then a rollout. An update.

India's 5G auction is arriving soon

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• The story: The government of India is looking at July 2022 to kick off and complete the upcoming 5G auctions. It is expected that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will give its recommendations on the base price by March '22, after which the necessary cabinet clearances will arrive. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) earlier looked at March 2022 but decided to push it back.
• 5G rollout: The DoT has made a reference to the regulator to fix the base price of the crucial 5G millimetre band, the amount of spectrum, and review the price fixed for the 3500 band by the regulator.

1. Telcos have raised serious objections to the high base price recommended earlier by TRAI and made it clear that the price would render 5G unviable.
2. Companies now say that a largescale commercial roll out of 5G networks will now only happen in 2023, even if auctions are completed by the second quarter of the calendar year.
3. For any reasonable roll out of 5G, firms expect it to happen sometimes from 2023 as they have to order equipment, roll out and upgrade networks among other things. Nothing will happen in a hurry.

• Issues pending: There are numerous issues which need to be tackled. Reliance Jio has opposed any phased auction as it feels that will impact the roll out. It has also opposed any move to auction the 3,300-3,670 band first and the millilmetre band later on. It has also opposed the fragmentation of the millimetre band to accommodate satellite broadband operators, saying that the availability of spectrum will then be very limited.
• A latecomer to the party: Experts say that India is a late entrant to the 5G space, despite the fact that spectrum was available to roll it out even a year or two ago. But the decision on the spectrum auction and even on trial runs has been postponed numerous times. According to the GSM Suppliers’ Association, the data till August 2021 shows that 166 operators in 67 countries have launched 5G services. By December 2022 when India’s roll out will start, this number might hit close to 250-300 operators. Moreover, 13 operators have also launched the much more advanced 5G standalone network (compared to 5G non-standalone which will continue to use the 4G network).
• Ambani's game: Reliance Jio is the only Indian company planning to launch 5G standalone. It offers low latency and opens up 5G for many other operations. Globally, there are already 660 million 5G subscribers (Ericsson Mobility report). It predicts that by 2027, the figure will rise to 4.4 billion. By the time this happens, India will still be a predominantly 4G market with only around 37 per cent of the subscriber base on 5G.
• Summary: India is late in 5G rollout. The government has to ensure things move fast, else in a few years, a straight jump to 6G may be needed.
• Knowledge centre: "5G" is the 5th generation mobile network. "5G wireless technology" is meant to deliver higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds, ultra low latency, more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, and a more uniform user experience to more users. South Korea is the country which deployed the first 5G network and is expected to stay in the lead as far as penetration of the technology goes, By 2025, almost 60 percent of mobile subscriptions in South Korea are expected to be for 5G networks. 5G band spectrum is the frequency at which the internet speed will be available to mobile devices. The frequency bands for 5G networks come in two sets. Frequency range 1 (FR1) is from 450 MHz to 6 GHz, which includes the LTE frequency range. Frequency range 2 (FR2) is from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The sub-6 GHz range is the name for FR1 and the mmWave spectrum is the name for FR2. While 4G uses frequencies below 6 GHz, some 5G networks use higher frequencies, like around 30 GHz or more. These high frequencies are great for a number of reasons, one of the most important being that they support a huge capacity for fast data.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the reason India is late to the "5G party". (2) What are the reasons the government is moving slowly on 5G auctions? Explain.

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