TRAI Recommendation On 5G Spectrum By March, Says Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union Budget 2022: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced that 5G mobile services will be rolled out in the financial year 2022-23.

Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw (File photo: getty)

New Delhi: The telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) proposal on the 5G spectrum is expected to come by March, after which spectrum auction will be held speedily for the roll-out of the next-generation service.

The minister said, the Department of Telecom is parallelly working on other auction-related processes to begin the spectrum auction at the earliest.

While giving his remark on Union Budget 2022-23, the minister said "recommendations on 5G are normal by March".

He also said that the budget plan focuses on improving research work and the development of indigenous technology.

The minister said that the government will put forth attempts for 5G services to be rolled out in India in 2022.

Trai has drifted a consultation paper of 5G spectrum auction to examine the perspective on intrigued companies and different partners to fix cost and conditions for allotment of the radiowaves.

The controller will give its proposal to the Department of Telecom which will then, at that point, look for the approval of higher authorities before conducting the auction.

Today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget discourse for 2022-23, said the telecommunication sector as a general rule, and 5G technology specifically, can empower development and offer job opportunities.

She said that the spectrum auctions will be led in 2022, to work with the carry out of 5G mobile services within 2022-23, by private telecom suppliers and a plan for design-led manufacturing will be sent off to construct a solid ecosystem for 5G as a feature of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

"To enable affordable broadband and mobile service proliferation in rural and remote areas, five per cent of annual collections under the Universal Service Obligation Fund will be allocated. This will promote R&D and commercialization of technologies and solutions," Sitharaman said.

5G spectrum auctions to be carried out in calendar 2022.
Affordable broadband and mobile service proliferation in rural and remote areas, 5% of annual collections Universal Service Obligation Fund will be allocated :FM @nsitharaman #Budget2022 - 2023#AatmaNirbharBharatKaBudget pic.twitter.com/7NEGY9zQiY

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) February 1, 2022

She said that the agreements for laying optical fiber in all towns, including distant regions, will be granted under the Bharatnet project through PPP in 2022-23, which is relied upon to be finished in 2025, to give all towns and their occupants a similar admittance to e-services, communication facilities, and digital resources at par with urban areas.

The budget likewise announced implantation of Rs 44,720 crore into loss-making making state-possessed telecom firm BSNL in the following financial year, as per Budget documents.

The telecom minister said BSNL has begun creating functional gain and the long-term vision of the government is to decisively develop the company and the Rs 69,000 crore recovery package for telecom PSUs was a stage that way.

"BSNL is now making an operating profit after a long time," the minister said.

The capital infusion in BSNL is mainly for the 4G spectrum and 4G service rollout across the country.

"4G and 5G are organically linked. One who has not installed 4G cannot install 5G. We have to see that a lot of youth, friends, brothers connect with BSNL and it should provide last-mile connectivity," Vaishnaw said.

He said that the production of indigenously developed 4G has begun, which has gone through enormous scope deployment, large-scale testing and it ought to be moved up to 5G after stabilisation.

Plus, the capital infusion, the government will offer extra monetary help of Rs 7,443.57 crore to the telecom firm for a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and Rs 3,550 crore as grant-in-aid for payment of GST.

The monetary help for VRS incorporates the execution of the plan at both BSNL and MTNL. The help for goods and services tax (GST) will be given to BSNL to the payment of GST on the allocation of 4G spectrum, as per the documents.

(With agency inputs)