Dept of telecommunications likely to announce schedule for 5G trials in few days

It seems that after being pulled up by the parliamentary committee on lack of preparedness for 5G, the department of telecommunications (DoT) is likely to announce the schedule for 5G trials in the coming few days. The DoT has already undertaken a meeting with telecom operators as well as equipment makers regarding the trials. After hearing from the industry, telecom secretary Anshu Prakash, held a meeting with officials in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on February 16, to give an update.

The DoT has assured the telecom operators that it will soon announce the 5G trial schedule. The standing committee on information technology, chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, has pulled up DoT for not doing sufficient preparatory work for launching of 5G services in India. The committee said at a time when many countries are swiftly moving towards 5G technology, India is likely to witness its deployment only by the end of 2021 or early part of 2022, that too partially.

“So, it is very likely that after missing the 2G, 3G, and 4G bus, India is going to miss on 5G opportunities, unless time-bound action is taken in core areas where governmental intervention is required.