Ramp up 5G tower development: Vaishnaw to telcos

The Centre has unveiled new policy reforms for satellite communication services in order to smoothen various procedures and clearance processes. As India enters the next phase of the telecommunication revolution with 5G, the government has also asked the industry to boost the 5G tower deployment across the country.

As per Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the current pace of 5G tower development is "very less" and "slow" at 2,500 per week. He urged the telecom ministry to increase it to at least 10,000 per week so the services could reach the farthest end of the country at the earliest.

The minister said the Centre has played its part in bringing reforms to ease several procedures and that now the ball is in the telecom industry's court to ramp up the 5G equipment installation to allow ultra-fast 5G services on a mass scale. He said these reforms will allow people in the remotest parts of India to benefit from digital services. 

The minister also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given us a clear mandate that the country should become the leader in telecom technology. “(This) means one has to work on every aspect of telecom technology in creating new solutions, making sure that globally India's inputs are heard at every forum." 

The minister said that as part of the latest sectoral reforms, companies will no longer need SACFA (Standing Advisory Committee on Frequency Allocation) nod to install 5G antenna on street furniture. Other Satcom-related reforms are allowing companies to deploy VSAT terminals on any mobile vehicle; self-certification of antennas; and simplifying the NOCC process and reducing the timeline to 6 weeks from 8 months.

Apart from this, the Centre has delicensed three bands for near-field communications -- 865-868 MHz band (for Internet of Things and Machine to Machine communications), 433 - 434.7MHz (in-vehicle equipment) and one more for contactless inductive chargers.

The Union minister says the government is committed to allowing satellite communication services, and that these services could be launched in the next 7-8 months. He said currently, TRAI is studying global best practices. As soon as they come up with a recommendation, the Centre will take its call, said the minister. "Satellite communication has special characteristics compared to terrestrial communications which is why we've given a reference to TRAI.”

The minister also said the Centre has already given licences to Reliance Jio and OneWeb for satellite communications services. Notably, mega-billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink has also applied for a licence with the DoT. Industry watchers say with the entry of global players, the next telecom battle will certainly be fought in the satellite-based broadband services market.

Meanwhile, the deadline for submission of comments on the draft telecom bill, 2022, has also been extended to October 30 instead of October 20, 2022, after requests from various stakeholders. 

The telecom draft bill, released on September 21, 2022, proposes to widen the definition of “telecommunication services” to include over-the-top (OTT) services and internet-based communication services. The new telecom bill also proposes a provision to waive any fee, interest, or penalties of telecom service providers, and refund in case a telecom provider surrenders its licence.