New Delhi: Telecom service providers, equipment vendors and social media major Facebook<\/a> have called on the government to ensure availability of abundant and continuous blocks of 5G spectrum<\/a> for effective 5G<\/a> rollout.
Experts have also highlighted the urgent need to allot 5G spectrum to operators on priority for 5G trials for at least one year. Facebook further urged for flexibility in licensing so that both licensed and unlicensed spectrum can be utilised by different participants.
“We need to have clarity on the amount of spectrum, it should be continuous, spectrum needs to be without any hindrance, encumbrance, there should not be any geographical restrictions of any nature,” said Subrata Kumar Mitra, Head - Government & Industry<\/a> Relations, Ericsson.
“What we are requesting regulators and the government is to give a minimum of 100 MHz per operator in the 3.5 GHz band, at least 400 MHz in the millimeter wave bandwidth in 26-28 GHz. And depending on the E-band sufficient amount of backhaul,” he said at a panel discussion on the 4the edition of India Mobile Congress.
“Unfortunately, smaller fragmented blocks of spectrum is not going to help. The current allocated spectrum block is very, very less and we need at least 200 MHz of continuous spectrum per operator in the mid-band for successful rollout of 5G and similarly higher quantum spectrum for other bands as well,” said Vishakha Saigal, EVP, Policy and Regulation, Regulatory Affairs, Reliance Jio.
She added that it is critical to kickstart the 5G trials at the earliest without any further delays and the government must allocate trial spectrum to the telcos across various bands on priority.
Airtel<\/a>’s VP-Regulatory Affairs, Amit Kushwaha said trials are must to start building up the ecosystem and use cases which are unique to India, because that is what will determine the return on investment that can be provided by 5G.
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