Mumbai, India (CU)_ A panel report presented in Parliament on Monday stated that the government plans to implement 5G services by early 2022 after another round of spectrum auction that is scheduled to take place after six months. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has been called up by the Standing Committee on Information Technology for the set back in the introduction of 5G networks as other countries have officially implemented the next-generation technology. Announcement has already been made by the Ministry of Telecom for the auction of spectrum worth Rs 3.92 lakh crore from March 1, but it does not comprise the required 5G service frequency band.
The parliamentary panel headed by the Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor said that the panel has been told that there will be some roll-out of 5G services in India in some particular uses by the end of 2021 or beginning of 2022, as 4G should function in India at least for another 5-6 years. The report said, “From the foregoing, the committee are inclined to conclude that sufficient preparatory work has not been undertaken for launching 5G services in India. As such, India has not moved beyond the modest beginning stage as compared to other countries in the world”.
The report further stated, “So, it is likely that after missing the 2G, 3G and 4G bus, India is going to miss 5G opportunities, unless time-bound action is taken in core areas where governmental intervention is required”. The report said that COAI, the telecommunications industry agency, addressed issues before the panel that telecommunications providers had submitted applications for a 5G trial in January 2020 and that the trial requirements had not been made clear to date. It added that there is no fixed date for these trials to begin.
The DoT told the panel that by October 2021, the test center for 5G trials is expected to be ready. The report said, “It is disappointing to note that the department (DoT) has hardly learnt from the past delays as the vision for 5G, which was reflected in the constitution of the high-level forum and expert committees, has not been transformed into action on the ground and is not reflected in the policies formulated by the government”.
