Telecom operators including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have asked the DoT to extend the 5G trial period by six months.
In May, the government allocated spectrum to telecom companies in the 700 MHz band, 3.3-3.6 GHz (GHz) band and 24.25-28.5 GHz band for testing for six months. A senior government official told PTI, “All telecom companies have demanded an extension of the 5G trial period by six months.
The current trial period ends in November.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has started the process of commercial roll out of 5G to seek the opinion of telecom regulator TRAI on the pricing and methodology for spectrum auction. While there is no clarity on the timeline of the auction, industry sources estimate that it will take place in the period April-June 2022.
On May 4, the DoT approved applications of Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and MTNL to conduct 5G trials without using Chinese companies’ technologies.
DoT approved 5G trials with Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT. In addition, Reliance Jio Infocomm is conducting trials using its indigenous technology as well as Samsung Gears.
According to DoT, 5G technology is expected to deliver ten times better download speed and three times higher spectrum efficiency than 4G.
Vodafone Idea claims to have recorded a top speed of 3.7 gigabits per second during testing, while the top speed for commercial 4G services in India has been recorded around 23 megabits per second.
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