Opinion | Ease the path for wide 5G network adoption

The Digital Communications Commission last week announced base prices for airwaves that telecommunications companies can bid for to expand their fourth generation or 4G networks and roll out 5G services. The industry has been increasingly vocal about India’s disproportionately high spectrum costs, which are all the more daunting as the companies have gone through a bruising price war that left finances stretched. Two of the sector’s three principal players are also staring at huge extra payments to be made to the country’s coffers, in accordance with court orders asking them to share a greater part of their revenue with the government than they had assumed for years together. In insisting on the “elevated” reserve prices advised by the telecom regulator, the government reportedly expects robust final bids for 4G spectrum, as operating licences come up for renewal in several parts of the country and operators move more of their subscribers to the latest cellular technology. The industry groans that airwaves for upcoming 5G services are also overpriced, given that these are being sold in other parts of the world at a fraction of our rates.