Industry seeks more quantum of spectrum

The telecom sector has sought more spectrum, and a long-term roadmap to further plan the rollout of next generation of networks, in addition to rationalisation of levies.

“We believe that the government needs to make sure that plenty of spectrum is available, and levies and taxes are lower,” P Balaji, chief regulatory and corporate affairs officer at Vodafone Idea said at the recent panel discussion on the Policy and Spectrum Roadmap for New India, organised by ETTelecom.

Last month, Minister of State for Telecom, Sanjay Dhotre in the Parliament said that the telecom department has started to prepare a spectrum roadmap for next 10 years in consultation with the stakeholders.

Dhotre also said that the fifth generation (5G) services would be introduced gradually, and would advance to a full range of services as the ecosystem and demand for new technology grows.

“For the first time we have the opportunity that may be in the 3 gigahertz band in the 26 gigahertz band, you will have a lot of spectrum available for the for operators. So once you make sure that these operators get enough chunks, with 100 megahertz per operator in the mid band, one gigahertz or such in higher bands only then can anything happen.” Balaji said, adding that a 10-year roadmap would be a welcome step.

In 2018, the sector regulator had recommended 3300 MHz-3600 MHz band spectrum for 5G deployment but of the total 300 MHz, 125 units are claimed by India’s defence and space departments.

The senior executive further said that following the reduction of reduction of taxes and levies, as well as pricing pressures, it would be possible for operators to invest faster in networks, and also deploy India-specific 5G use cases.

“The planning process will get impacted positively in case we have a 10-year roadmap as it will provide surety and stability on which spectrum would be planned,” SP Kochhar, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said.

Kochhar further said that the planning process would become easier and budgeting of all industry plans could be easily done.

“The 5G networks and applications are going to be reality in India very soon,” R. Shakya, Deputy Director-General, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said, and added that the views expressed by the industry would help the government to convert these ideas into action points while bringing out the spectrum roadmap.

Kishore Babu, Deputy Director General at the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) felt that eight to 10 years would be a very reasonable time where spectrum could be planned from identification to deployment.

“I would say that we definitely welcome this (10-year roadmap) initiative. I think what we have been looking for it, and the industry looks for predictability, and if there is spectrum predictability in regulation that makes life easier for vendors and operators to plan in the future,” Amit Marwah, head of marketing at Nokia India said.

“We also from the satellite industry point of view are also very supportive of the government initiative on a 10-year planning exercise, primarily because as with any industry, certainty is the key, having a certainty in terms of the availability of spectrum in the longer term,” Bashir Patel, Senior Regional Advisor & GSC Coordinator, Inmarsat said.

The department is yet to firm its plan for the field trials of local 5G use cases, and spectrum availability and sale, for the commercial deployment of next generation of services.