DoT forms committee to chart out strategy for commercialization of 5G & local 5Gi: Report

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has formed a committee to chart out a strategy for the commercialization and monetization of 5G and the locally developed 5Gi standard, the Financial Express reported.

The committee has been set up under Member (Technology) of DoT and has been tasked with seeking inputs from stakeholders, including telecom operators, network providers, among others, regarding both technologies by March 2022 and a further two years in the long term, the report said citing sources.

Additionally, the government wants to take stock of the current availability of 5G products, devices, and applications, and how to make them available to the consumers, the report added.

The telecom department will also chalk out a strategy for the development of 5G ecosystem and 5G-based applications in the country.

The daily newspaper said the government wants to promote the 5Gi technology and it is of the opinion that operators should use 5Gi for rolling out their fifth-generation wireless networks.

However, the Big 3 telcos — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea have been vocally opposing 5Gi standard and want it to be considered as optional, non-mandatory. They have highlighted that making the standard mandatory would increase the price of smartphones and will lead to delays in rollout.

Indian telcos, vendors, and chipmakers had voiced their concerns around 5Gi with the telecom department in a meeting earlier in August. The meeting was also attended by members from academia, ICEA, TSDSI, and CDoT.

Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea are already conducting 5G trials using the trial spectrum allotted by the DoT and have sought a further one-year extension to conclude trials citing the lack of readiness of 5G partners. The current trial period ends in November 2021.

The extension, if allowed, would push the auction timeline to the second half of 2022.

Recently, telecom secretary K Rajaraman visited IIT Madras to monitor the development of indigenous 5G testbed being developed by the institute and collaborating institutes.