It appears that a 5G auction will take place in India soon. According to PTI, a senior telecom official has revealed that a 5G spectrum auction could take place in May this year if the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) submits 5G pricing recommendations in March. The 5G auction was previously rumoured to take place in July-August. If the auction is completed on time, 5G services will be available by the end of 2022.
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Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed just a few days ago that the TRAI intends to submit its recommendations for the 5G auction by next month. He also stated that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is working on other processes in order to hold the auction as soon as possible.
"TRAI has stated that it (recommendations) will be sent by March. Following that, it will take us a month to make a decision "K Rajaraman, Telecom Secretary, told PTI. According to the cited source, the DoT will wait at least two months after receiving recommendations from the TRAI before launching the 5G auction.
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Previously, after receiving recommendations on the spectrum auction, the government took 60-120 days to begin the bidding process in the auction. The Department of Transportation is relying on TRAI to determine the pricing of the spectrum, the method for allocating it, the block size of spectrum, payment terms and conditions, and other factors that will be included in the auction.
Before submitting recommendations to the DoT, TRAI must consult with industry and other stakeholders. That being said, if everything falls into place on time, residents of India's top metro cities will finally be able to experience 5G by the end of 2022.
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According to the Department of Transportation, only 13 metro cities will be the first to receive 5G services this year. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Ahmadabad, Jamnagar, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow, and Gandhinagar are among them. The 5G network is expected to provide users with ten times the download speed of 4G services.