The second India Spectrum Management Conference organised by ITU-APT Foundation of India (IAFI) on December 6, 2022, to December 7, 2022, explored the impact of a new spectrum strategy on key priority areas like 5G rollout, digital divide, connecting the unconnected and providing impetus to local manufacturing and innovation in India.
As the chief guest of the event, Devusinh Chauhan, Minister of State for Communications, laid emphasis on the fact that high-speed 5G roll out across sectors is the key to reducing the digital divide so that no one is left behind. He noted that, in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat, India has indigenously designed, developed and manufactured advanced telecom technology, and as a result, India today has a strong home-grown 4G and 5G mobile communications ecosystem. He further added that the Ministry of Communications has initiated a number of structural and procedural reforms in the telecom sector. These reforms have created a very positive, and forward-looking environment for the telecom industry.
Meanwhile, Bharat Bhatia, president, IAFI, said that the two-day conference is discussing important areas such as spectrum for 5G, 6G, Wi-Fi 6 and 7, private and industrial 5G and vision for the next generation of mobile technology. He said that it is timely to start looking at the next round of 5G spectrum auctions as the spectrum assigned in the last auctions earlier in 2022 will be consumed very soon by the data hungry 1.4 billion people of India.
The two-day event had guest of honour, Dr. Mahesh Shukla, member services, Digital Communication Commission, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and imminent speakers such as V Raghunandan, secretary, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI); Sanjeev Sharma, deputy director general (DDG) and officer on special duty (OSD) to Minister of State for Communications; Dr. Hemang Shah, director of engineering, Qualcomm India Private Limited; Vishy Ramaswamy, vice president, 5G and Digital Solutions, Tata Communications; and global experts such as Per Beming, vice president and head of standard and industry initiatives, Ericsson; Masanori Kondo, secretary general, Asia pacific Telecommunity (APT); Alan Norman, director, Public Policy, Meta; among others.
Nearly 300 Telecom professionals and spectrum experts attended the two-day event where the speakers and panelist discussed extensively the role of domestic manufacturers and technology developers, supportive and committed to the national local manufacturing efforts. The discussions also dealt with spectrum and regulatory initiatives required to facilitate the roll out of 5G and 6G services.
