Insight Bureau: The private telecom operators have been working for months to upgrade their networks and make them 5G-capable. 5G testing has also been going on for quite some time and several new innovative use cases have already been discovered.
Recently, Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Telecom Minister, made a call to IIT Madras using the 5G network. This was quite a breakthrough for India and also something positive for the telecom sector.
But the hard truth is that we are still months away from launching the first commercial 5G network in India. The cabinet has yet to approve the frequency auction recommendations. As soon as this arrives, DoT (Department of Telecommunications) will start preparing for the spectrum auctions.
Cities to get 5G in India
The DoT had previously said 5G networks would be rolled out first in 13 cities across the country. These will most likely be the cities where 5G testing is already underway.
Tentatively, the cities identified for 5G rollout include Delhi, Mumbai, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, and Gandhi Nagar.
Telecom companies are expected to roll out the 5G commercial networks smoothly and see the response they receive, and then expand them to other cities and counties.
Even if the telcos wanted to, they could not roll out 5G networks to all parts of the country. First, the cost would be too high and second, they would require ready-made infrastructure everywhere, which is not the case in most parts of India.
In fact, we don’t even know how the telcos will participate in the 5G spectrum auction. Furthermore, there is no clear evidence or development that the 5G spectrum auction would only take place in June-July 2022.
The government has a very ambitious goal of seeing live 5G networks in India by August 15, 2022. However, given the speed at which things are developing in the country, this is very unlikely.