India’s 5G conquest

Countries like the USA have started launching 5G networks in cities. China, South Korea have issued frequencies and the European countries have auctions for 5G spectrum soon. The question arises is where does India stand in terms of progress on the 5G timeline?

India would not want to miss the 5G spectrum bus although the auctions are not to take place before 2020. The aspects that are to be considered before getting involved with 5G networks would be finances of the telecom sector, provisions and loans provided by the domestic banks and the tariff service providers would operate.

Another problem is that 4G is still being stabilized and enhanced indicating that the operators are in no hurry to reach out for 5G. Investment and lack of infrastructure is an issue that needs to be looked upon. This would clear that the Reliance group or the Bharti (Airtel) group could only invest from the telecom sector in such a venture.

The 5G spectrum is expensive in India as the same bandwidth of 3300-3600MHz in South Korea costs 131 crores per MHz while in India it would cost 492 crores per MHz.

The government is doing its best to introduce 5G to the locals by attracting International 5G conferences and organizing national 5G events as 5G promises to grow gradually.