5G auctions: If operators don’t bid on 700 MHz spectrum, the DoT may consider appointing it to railways

The federal government may take into account assigning components of the 700 MHz spectrum to the railways in case it goes stays unsold within the upcoming 5G auctions.

Within the session paper floated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the spectrum necessities for State railway organisations such because the Nationwide Capital Area Transport Company (NCRTC) for practice management programs, the regulator famous that leaving this worthwhile spectrum idle could be of financial loss to the nation.

Moreover, provided that the Indian Railways have already been assigned 5MHz of spectrum on this band already, the event of their LTE technology-based community might be a lot quicker if different State rail networks ask for spectrum 700 MHz as properly.

TRAI mentioned, “If different rail networks are additionally assigned spectrum in 700 MHz bands, the event of the ecosystem for Railway Radiocommunication Techniques between Prepare and Trackside (RSTT) on this band could possibly be quicker, leading to economies of scale and thus profit the folks of the nation at giant.”

Essential band for 5G protection

Whereas 700 MHz is the important thing frequency band for indoor 5G protection, the overall consensus amongst the specialists is that it’s going to see no bidders within the upcoming auctions.

A report by IIFL mentioned the next on this matter, “(700 MHz) is vital for standalone 5G providers by means of community slicing. Nevertheless, with telcos probably to make use of 4G core, to supply 5G providers (non-standalone configuration) within the close to time period, we see no urgency from telcos in buying 700 MHz at such excessive costs.”

Standalone deployment of 5G is the gold normal for 5G community deployment, with telecom operators globally veering in direction of any such deployment in mature networks. In accordance with IIFL, every operator wants 15MHz of spectrum within the 700 MHz band.

Whereas India had 45 MHz of spectrum on this band initially, 10 MHz of this has already been earmarked by the federal government, and 5 MHz has already been assigned to the Indian railways. Subsequently, as of now, solely 30 MHz of the spectrum has been left for business use.

NCRTC has additionally requested for one more 5MHz of spectrum to be able to additional develop their regional transportation corridors.

TRAI predicts that different regional rail firms are more likely to observe swimsuit. If NCRTC will get its requested quantity of spectrum it’ll depart solely 25 MHz of spectrum for operators, which won’t be sufficient for the three telcos — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Thought to supply mature 5G providers.

Chipping away 700 MHz

Moreover, the federal government isn’t just deliberating on NCRTC’s request, but additionally the potential requests of different regional railway ventures, which is able to finally chip away on the essential 5G band.

If telecom operators don’t bid on this spectrum in these auctions, and it stays unassigned, it may additional strengthen the federal government’s concerns to not let the spectrum go to waste and assign it to the railways for a myriad of important providers from public security to Wi-Fi.

Nevertheless, acknowledging the essential want for this spectrum band to supply 5G providers, TRAI has additionally floated a session paper to contemplate different spectrum bands each in 600 MHz and 900 MHz for railways.

Whereas bidding for the 5G spectrum operators should think about whether or not abandoning 700 MHz on this public sale will immediate the federal government to decrease its worth to place it to another use.

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June 24, 2022