The Covid-19 pandemic would potentially delay the launch of 5G technology in India, Gopal Vittal, CEO of Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel said during a press conference.
India has been struggling for several months with a national wave of COVID-19 infections that has overwhelmed hospitals and in recent days, led to reported deaths of more than 4,500 people a day. The country has more than 25.5 million cases of COVID-19, second only to the United States, and nearly 300,000 people have died from the disease — a likely undercount of the full impact that the pandemic is having on the world’s second most-populous country.
“We were earlier under the impression that the 5G auction could happen by December. With the pandemic that has hit us, my sense is that the 5G rollout may get delayed by a few months. Whether this happens this fiscal year or the next year is something to be seen,” Vittal was quoted as saying.
In January, Bharti Airtel carried out a 5G test on a live network in Hyderabad and said its network was fully ready for a commercial launch of this technology. India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had recently authorized Indian carriers to carry out trials of 5G technology in the country.
DoT said that the permits were given to Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Vodafone Idea and MTNL, which will carry out these 5G trials in partnerships with vendors including Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT. In addition, Reliance Jio Infocomm will also be conducting trials using its own technology. Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE were not included in this phase of 5G trials.
DoT is awarding experimental spectrum in the mid-band (3.2 GHz to 3.67 GHz), millimeter-wave band (24.25 GHz to 28.5 GHz) and in the 700 MHz band for these 5G trials. Mobile operators will also be able to use their existing spectrum in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2500 MHz bands.
The 5G trials are expected to last for a six-month period, which includes a time period of two months for procurement and setting up of the equipment. Each carrier will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings also in addition to urban areas.
DoT was expected to ask the country’s telecoms regulator to lower the minimum price for the auction of 5G airwaves, according to recent press reports.
Local carriers have been insisting that the floor price recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is unaffordable and will seriously affect the launch of commercial 5G services in the country.
The regulator had previously set the reserve price for 5G spectrum at INR4.92 billion ($66.6 million) per megahertz of spectrum in the 3.3-3.6 GHz bands.
The Cellular Operators Association of India has previously warned that the high reserve price for 5G frequencies would make it difficult for local carrier to take part in the 5G spectrum auction. The reserve prices set by Trai for 5G airwaves is nearly 4-6 times higher than that of the prices in other countries.
The DoT is also likely to ask Trai to set a starting price for the 600 MHz sub-GHz band, which has not been auctioned previously.
