The Indian telecom market is brimming with opportunity as the country is finally ready to step into the 5G era. After a successful round of 5G auctions, telcos are now vying with each other to get an early start in launching 5G services.
The four bidders have paid over Rs 178.73 billion as their initial 5G spectrum dues. Bharti Airtel paid nearly half of the total amount (Rs 83.12 billion) in advance payment for four years while Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Adani Data Networks paid Rs 78.64 billion, Rs 16.8 billion and Rs 180 million respectively.
Further, the two top telcos, Reliance Jio and Airtel, also announced their 5G coverage plans. Reliance Jio recently announced that it has completed 5G coverage planning in the top 1,000 cities while Airtel stated that it has network roll-out plans in place for 5,000 towns. With this, the country can expect 5G roll-outs to begin any time over the coming months.
A lot is happening on the private 5G network front as well, with the Department of Telecommunications inviting participation in demand studies for direct assignment of spectrum to enterprises setting up captive non-public networks (CNPN).
To this end, DoT has launched a module on the Saral Sanchar portal for carrying out demand studies and announced that enterprises that have a net worth of more than Rs 1 billion and are willing to set up CNPNs can participate in the exercise from August 10, 2022 to September 9, 2022.
Post completion of these studies, India is expected to see new enterprise players setting up their own private 5G networks that would enable them to modernise their business operations and usher in new-age procedures in the enterprise space.
Together, telcos, with an ideal spectrum bank, and enterprises, with the best 5G-enabled applications, will help shape a robust 5G ecosystem that is capable of offering a world-class experience to both customers and industries.
