Adani had previously applied for a universal license in six geographic regions across India
Indian conglomerate Adani Group aims to launch 5G services for enterprises in 2023, according to local press reports.
The Indian conglomerate also announced that it would be launching consumer apps this year as part of its digital strategy.
Addressing his employees in the New Year, the group’s head Gautam Adani said the company will invest in expanding the network of data centers, building AI-ML and industrial cloud capabilities, along with rolling out 5G services and launching B2C apps.
In the recent 5G spectrum auction, Adani Data Networks had secured 400 megahertz of spectrum in the 26 GHz band. The company won 100 megahertz each in Gujarat and Mumbai and 50 megahertz each in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
Adani Data Networks is a subsidiary of local conglomerate Adani Group.
The company has also recently applied for a universal license in six geographic regions across India. Adani Data Networks had said it will not provide 5G services for the consumer market but will use these frequencies to deploy 5G private networks to support the conglomerate’s connectivity needs.
In August 2022, Finnish vendor Nokia had reportedly started talks with Adani Data Networks to deploy private 5G using the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band, Indian newspaper The Economic Times reported.
Adani Group’s businesses include port management, electric power generation and transmission, renewable energy, mining, airport operations, natural gas, food processing and infrastructure. The conglomerate has operations in 50 countries.
Indian company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) previously said it aims to help companies and organizations across different verticals to set up their 5G private networks.
Under local regulations, TCS can set up 5G private network for enterprises but cannot become a licensee or own spectrum. A company that intends to deploy a private network can lease out frequencies from a telecom operator or directly purchase the frequencies from the government.
Over 20 Indian companies have applied to secure 5G spectrum to set private networks in the country, The Economic Times reported.
Some of the interested companies include Infosys, Capgemini, GMR, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Communications, Tata Power and Tejas Networks.
The companies’ applications were submitted in response to a request from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) meant to help figure out the level of market demand for spectrum to set up private networks. After assessing the demand, the Indian government will decide whether or not spectrum for such private networks should be assigned, and at what price. Currently, enterprises can lease spectrum from telcos to establish a private network.
However, the DoT has said that the current exercise was to study demand—so an application at this stage would not mean spectrum would be assigned to the interested company.
The press report noted that industry executives believe that the overall process to define the rules of the process to award 5G spectrum to private companies could take one to two years.
