The COAI, a telecom operators’ association, has urged the government to revisit the 5G spectrum pricing issue as the department of telecom rolled out a six-month trial run for use and application of 5G technology.

“We hope the government will also look into the industry’s call for revisiting the 5G spectrum pricing,” S.P. Kochhar, directorate-general of the COAI, said.

COAI is an industry body that represents the private telcos of India along with other multinational telecom companies from around the globe.

Industry officials said the COAI is likely to write to the government to urge it to reconsider the pricing as the operators consider it to be too expensive.

DoT sources have indicated that the 5G spectrum auction is likely to be held towards the end of this year or early next year.

The reserve price for 5G spectrum has been set at Rs 492 crore per MHz of spectrum in the 3,300-3,600MHz bands, which are considered ideal for 5G telecom services. Trai had recommended the 5G spectrum base price in August 2018.

The suggestions were

then accepted by the Digital Communications Commission, the highest decision-making authority at the DoT, in the following year.

Kocchar lauded the government’s decision to allow the operators to start with the 5G trials so that an early rollout of the next-generation technology can be ensured.

Kocchar said the 5G trials would empower the operators to validate 5G technologies and its related use cases, including Industry 4.0 applications and Internet-of-Things.

The telecom department has granted the permissions according to the priorities and technology partners identified by telecom operators.

“The experimental spectrum is being given in various bands, which include the mid-band (3.2 GHz to 3.67 GHz), millimetre wave band (24.25 GHz to 28.5 GHz) and in the Sub-Gigahertz band (700 GHz).”

The telcos will also be permitted to use the existing spectrum owned by them (800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2500 MHz) to conduct 5G trials.