Department of Telecommunications (DoT) may levy Rs 5k fee per location for 5G field trials

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) may levy a nominal spectrum allocation charge of Rs 5,000 per location for field trials of 5G mobile services, and is likely to extend the allocation span of such airwaves to one year instead of the present 90-days limit. Telcos and network vendors have recently urged DoT to allocate such 5G trial spectrum for at least a year, as the present 90-day limit is considered way too short, given the complexity of the proposed field trials.

DoT originally planned to charge for 5G trial spectrum allocations on ‘a per radiating node’ basis. But it is learnt to have agreed to a “per location’ charging model after the telecom industry pointed out that the former charging mechanism would have made trial spectrum allocations exorbitant since 5G networks, unlike 2G, 3G or 4G, involve thousands of nodes in any location as the objective is to achieve densification for boosting indoor coverage and supporting ultra-fast data speeds. Accordingly, if 5G spectrum is now allocated for trials in three locations in say, Delhi, the company or academic institution conducting them will pay Rs 15,000.