The Department of Telecom (DoT) will soon seek an early referral from the sector regulator Trai’s recommendations on pricing and other modalities for coveted 5G bands of 24.75-27.25 GHz, and is looking forward to put this new spectrum up for auction in 2020, sources said.
This move comes two days after the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) urged the government to seek Trai’s views on 26 GHz band.
“We request an early referral from DoT to Trai to make a recommendation for including the 26 GHz band for the planned spectrum auction in conjunction with other bands as this is imperative and will have a significant bearing on realising the deployment of 5G in India,” COAI Director General, Rajan Mathews had said in a year-end note recently.
Up until now, the government has been opposing to use the 26GHz spectrum band for 5G operations as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) wants this spectrum band for satellite services. Even countries like China and Russia have also opposed this, citing the defence of their military operations.
This new 5G chunk is separate from the Rs 5.22 lakh crore spectrum sale plan approved by the Digital Communications Commission on December 20, under which 8,300 MHz of airwaves across 22 circles are set to be put on block in March-April 2020.
DoT is planning to approach Trai in January for its views on these additional 5G bands, sources stated.
(With input from agencies)