DoT Allocates Spectrum For 5G Use Showcase At India Mobile Congress

To demonstrate India-specific use cases of 5G, the department of telecommunications (DoT) on Wednesday has allocated 5G spectrum to telecom service providers and their vendor partners ahead of the India Mobile Congress event next week in Delhi. 

According to a news report, Vodafone-Idea, Bharti Airtel, and Reliance Jio will participate at the event representing the network operators, whereas infrastructure and networking giants Huawei and ZTE have also been invited to the three-day event starting on October 14. 

Apart from the network operators and vendors, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has been instructed to closely coordinate with participants during the India Mobile Congress. The COAI had earlier raised the demand for this spectrum demonstration ahead of a potential 5G launch in India in late 2020 or early 2021.  

In a notification order, DoT’s Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing (WPC) invited all telecom service providers and original equipment manufacturers and academic institutions willing to showcase their 5G technologies at the India Mobile Congress next week. 

The notification further said that all participants in India need to coordinate and share spectrum in the 5G frequency bands 3.4GHz – 3.6GHz as well as 26-28GHz during the event. 

Besides Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Jio, electronics companies Nokia, Samsung, ZTE, as well as premier academic institutions such as IIT-Chennai and IIT-Delhi are also expected to be present at the 5G use-case demo at IMC. 

Although the WPC has requested the government for the allocation of 5G spectrum to participants to highlight how the fifth-generation cellular connectivity technology will be implemented across the country, there are no clear signs yet of when 5G networks would be implemented across the country. 

Moving Towards 5G

The Indian government hasn’t approved the allotment of 5G spectrum and telecom companies are keeping a close eye on 5G’s spectrum allocation. In India, spectrum allocation is being done through the auction process and the government is yet to auction the 3.3K MHz – 3.6K MHz bands. The spectrum band (3.5 GHz spectrum) is expected to be the first band to be globally accepted for 5G deployment.

According to 5G HLF report, 5G is expected to be launched in India by 2020. It is predicted that the 5G technology will create a cumulative economic impact of $1 Tn in the Indian market by 2035. According to the Global System for Mobile Communications(GSMA), India is expected to have 88 Mn 5G connections by 2025, which is projected to be around 7% of the country’s total subscriber base in that year.