Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea have asked for more time from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for conducting 5G trials. While this is not a new development, there might be many who will be wondering why did the DoT allow a time extension. If delays in trials amount to delay in 5G roll out, wouldn’t it be bad for India?
There are a lot of factors at play here. One of the major ones is that the telcos are still developing use cases. From finding use cases, the telcos want to be ready to unearth all the commercial opportunities they can get as soon as they launch 5G networks.
Government Would Have Wanted Telcos to Take More Time Anyway
The DoT doesn’t have a fresh 5G spectrum price recommendation from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) yet. The National Frequency Allocation Policy (NFAP) is yet to be updated, and thus if the telcos had completed the trials, they would have to wait for a long-time just for the spectrum auctions to take place.
It was better only that the telcos asked for more time to conduct 5G trials so that they could utilise the time in their favour and be more ready for 5G.
Additionally, there’s no clarity in terms of 5Gi being a part of India’s future network ecosystem. There are a lot of people against and a lot of people with 5Gi. This is also something that network operators, as well as the government, needs to figure out together.
All the telecom operators are already working on finding and developing multiple use-cases of 5G. The more time they get, the better it is for them. As time passes by, even more, 5G smartphone users will be added in India. It will also be good for Indian enterprises that the telcos have prepared themselves for 5G services which will ensure seamless working of the networks as nothing is happening in a rush.
