Opinion | Ease the way for 5G

India’s ride towards 5G just got bumpier with India’s telecom regulator refusing to budge from its earlier recommended prices of spectrum. This has operators worried. Already suffering a huge debt burden, their revenue streams have been constricted by ultra-low telecom charges in a hyper-competitive market. Last month, the government did make the right noises about “inclusive” 5G services that everyone could afford. But with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) sticking to its stand, the department of telecommunications (DoT) is now in a sticky spot. If the DoT reduces prices at its end, the exchequer’s intake would likely fall short of TRAI’s projections; if not, the auction would risk failure.

This upgradation of telecom technology is expected to raise efficiency in agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, education and other sectors. Mobile telephony, after all, is part of the country’s enabling infrastructure, especially vital to the objectives of Digital India.