The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will take the final call on how the 5G spectrum will be allocated to the relevant firms in India. With 5G, the role of private networks would enhance, and thus non-telecom firms will be very interested in getting their hands on the 5G spectrum. The telcos and non-telecom companies have a varied view on how the spectrum should be allocated for 5G networks. Telcos want that uniformity should be maintained, and everyone who seeks to get hands on the 5G spectrum should get it through an auction. But the thing is, the non-telecom firms say that for private 5G, the government can even allocate the spectrum administratively.
TRAI Is Trying to Understand Whether a Change in Licensing Framework is Required
According to a FinancialExpress report, TRAI is looking to understand from the telecom operators and the stakeholders whether there is a change required in the licensing framework when bandwidth is used for purposes other than providing direct services to the consumers.
5G spectrum would be used by many multinational companies for automating their manufacturing facilities, securing networks, and more. Since this would be very different from what the telecom operators do, which is provide direct network services to consumers, TRAI wants to understand whether the licensing framework for the same should be changed.
The non-telecom companies would want to get a piece of the spectrum so that they can build their own private 5G networks for all internal communications and for automating manufacturing factories. This would keep their organisation’s data a lot safer. The telcos want the spectrum to be auctioned for whomsoever is concerned, while the non-telecom firms have a different opinion.
TRAI might reserve 25 MHz spectrum in the 3400 MHz - 3425 MHz frequency band for private 5G. Many industry analysts and experts believe that the 5G spectrum should not be auctioned for non-telecom firms as it doesn’t really make any sense.
