Government To Seek TRAI’s Views On New 5G Spectrum, Wants Auction In 2020

The Department of Telecom will soon seek Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s recommendations on pricing and other modalities for 5G bands of 24.75-27.25 GHz, and wants to put this new spectrum up for auction sometime next year, sources said.

This new 5G chunk is separate from the Rs 5.22 lakh crore spectrum auction plan approved by the Digital Communications Commission on Dec. 20, under which 8,300 MHz of airwaves across 22 circles are set to be put on the block in March-April 2020.

The DoT sources said that the government will soon approach TRAI in January for its recommendations on “millimeter wave bands” of 24.75-27.25 GHz—the coveted 5G spectrum.

Although DoT wants these bands to be put for sale earlier in the year, there are specific timelines involved in TRAI reference and responses, they said. That said, DoT wants to put this additional spectrum belonging to new 5G bands for auction sometime during 2020, they noted.

To be sure, industry body Cellular Operators’ Association of India has been urging the government to seek TRAI’s views on 26 GHz band.

“We request an early referral from DoT to Trai to make a recommendation for including the 26 GHz band for the planned spectrum auction in conjunction with other bands as this is imperative and will have a significant bearing on realising the deployment of 5G in India,” COAI Director General Rajan Mathews had said in a year-end note recently.―Bloomberg Quint