Telecom operators seek a 6-month extension of 5G trail period

Telecom operators have requested the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to extend the 5G trail period by six months.
Earlier in May 2021, the government has allocated spectrum to the telecom companies in 700 Mhz band, 3.3 – 3.6 Ghz band and 24.25 – 28.5 Ghz band for trails across various locations for six months.
The current trail period ends in November 2021.
On May 04, 2021, DoT had cleared applications from Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and MTNL for conducting 5G trials without using technologies from Chinese companies.DoT had approved trials of 5G with Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT. In addition, Reliance Jio has been conducting trials using its own indigenous technology as well as Samsung gears.
DoT has already initiated commercial 5G roll out process by seeking TRAI’s view on the pricing and methodology for the spectrum auction. As of now there is no clarity on the timeline of the spectrum auction. However, industry sources expect it to take place somewhere around April-June 2022.