Telcos Raise Demands for Financial Aid and Favourable Terms from DoT for 5G Rollout

Incumbent telecom operators in the industry have drafted a letter to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) asking for support from the government to start 5G or fifth generational network trials. The telcos have specifically asked for financial aid, backhaul spectrum, and duty-free telecom gear to kickstart fifth generation 5G technology based field trials. The letter was dated February 7 and was spotted by ET Telecom which said that the government “must provide financial support” to the telecom service providers and permissions and fee for network equipment purchase should be waved off.

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COAI Reaches Out to DoT to List Favourable Terms for 5G Rollout

The letter was drafted by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) which represents telcos like Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and vendors like Cisco, Ciena, Huawei, Ericsson and Sterlite. To recall, the DoT has already invited the gear vendors and telecom operators to work together, do pilot testing of 5G network and come up with India centric use-cases by early 2019. The government is planning to roll out 5G services by 2020.

The only trouble with the adoption of the new 5G technology is that the telecom industry, except for Reliance Jio, is stacked under a debt of Rs 7 lakh crore and as such the public sector banks are reluctant to fund new initiatives by the top three telecom operators. In the letter, which was seven-page long, COAI director, Rajan Matthews highlighted that the telcos should be able to choose original equipment manufacturer (OEM) independently. He also said that there should be a single point of contact for all clearances related to the adoption of new technologies.