India is all set to become a nation with live commercial 5G networks. One part of India’s would also be for enterprises. Until 4G, enterprises weren’t so concerned to get spectrum from the government for captive private networks. But the power of 5G networks surely changed things. Private 5G networks are going to help the enterprises in a major way. Earlier this year, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) had recommended that enterprises could get the 5G spectrum directly from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for captive private 5G networks. Now, DoT is checking the kind of demand there is for private 5G network from enterprises. More specifically, the body is checking whether the enterprises want spectrum directly from the govt to set up private 5G networks. In a tweet on Wednesday, DoT said, “DoT launches online facility to assess demand for directly assigning IMT spectrum to enterprises aiming to establish captive non-public networks. Window open up to 9 September 2022.” DoT will check for the demand of spectrum from the enterprises for private 5G. The telecom department has not shared any more details around the same as of now. But after the assessment is completed, some sort of announcement should come. It is worth noting that the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents the private telcos in India has criticised the notion of allowing enterprises to set up their own private networks. But the tech companies are loving it and want the government to administratively allocate spectrum to the enterprises for building captive private 5G networks. What will happen in the end is something that we can’t comment on right now. But at this point, the government seems to be leaning on the side of giving spectrum to the tech companies for private 5G networks. What do you think about this?
