TRAI Recommendation on 5G Spectrum in March, Rollout This Year

On Tuesday, the Union Telecom, Railways, and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that TRAI will issue a recommendation for the 5G spectrum in March, with an auction following soon.

5G Spectrum Auction Coming Soon

Commenting on the Union Budget 2022, the minister had said that the TRAI's "recommendations of 5G are expected by March". He also informed that the DoT has been working on all the other behind-the-scenes work on the spectrum auction. Vaishnaw further added that the budget has focused on improving R&D and developing homegrown technologies.

Incidentally, TRAI had already floated a consultation paper for 5G late last year. The next order of business is TRAI compiling the views it received from the industry into a recommendation and submitting them to the DoT. After the DoT presents the same to the Cabinet for approval, TRAI will fix a date for the auction.

Presenting the Union Budget 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the telecom sector and 5G services can enable growth and offer job opportunities. Revealing the plans for 5G, she said that the spectrum auction will happen this year, with 5G services rolling out in 2022-23. Along with this, the Finance Minister also announced a scheme to develop homegrown 5G tech under the ongoing PLI scheme for telecom infra.

Furthermore, she also announced that 5% of annual USOF collections; will enable "affordable broadband and mobile service proliferation in rural and remote areas". Adding to this, Sitharaman also announced that connecting every village with optical fiber, under the BharatNet scheme, will conclude in 2025.

Govt. Keen to Revamp BSNL

One of the more inconspicuous things that came out of the budget was the government allocating ₹44,720 crores to BSNL. Since BSNL has started making an operational profit, according to the telecom minister, the government wants the telco to grow further. He also called the ₹69,000 crore revival package a step in that direction. Notably, the government has repeatedly shown intent to compete in the telecom sector; it recently acquired a majority stake in Vodafone Idea, but it doesn't plan on running the telco itself.

However, the telecom minister insisted that the capital infusion will help the state-owned telco roll out 4G services in India. Vaishnaw added, "4G and 5G are organically linked. One who has not installed 4G cannot install 5G. We have to see that a lot of youth, friends, brothers connect with BSNL and it should provide last-mile connectivity". Vaishnaw also notified that the development of 4G has started; BSNL will have the capacity to upgrade it to 5G after stabilization.

Along with the said capital infusion, the government will provide an additional ₹7,443.57 crores for a voluntary retirement scheme, and ₹3,550 crores as a grant-in-aid for the payment of GST.