The steering committee set up to chart India's 5G roadmap today recommended additional spectrum for fuelling the next-generation of wireless services and suggested that the allocation of the first tranche of such radio waves will be announced this year. The panel, which submitted its report to the government today, gave wide-ranging recommendations to drive India's 5G aspirations entailing areas like spectrum policy, regulatory policy, education and standards. The economic impact of 5G is expected to be over 1 trillion dollars, the report said.
"5G is a massive new opportunity...it can be leveraged for major societal transformation," Prof AJ Paulraj, who chaired the committee, told reporters of PTI. He said that 5G roadmap pursued by India should not only move the country forward but also result in progress of weaker sections of society.
Paulraj said he expected the 5G commercial roll out in India to happen around 2020. The steering committee has also mooted constitution of the panel with a five-year term that can advise on building spectrum technology infrastructure for India.
In June 2018, 5G Committee of the telecom ministry published a report stating that 6000Mhz of the spectrum can be availed for the rollout of 5G service in the country. The 5G Committee is expecting that if the government allocates 6000Mhz spectrum, then the internet speeds in India will be increased by 50% compared to the present data speeds experiencing by the users. In that report, the 5G panel suggested in the higher frequency band of 300Mhz in 3.5 GHz band and 405 Mhz spectrum in sub- 1000 Mhz, 5,250 megahertz of the spectrum can be made available for 5G services.
