As India moves towards 5G, huge potential for E and V bands: Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash

Prakash was speaking during a panel discussion organised by COAI on digital networks. (File image)

Telecom secretary Anshu Prakash on Thursday said there is huge potential for E and V bands spectrum as the country move towards 5G and the government is aware of it and will work together with industry.  The E and V bands are considered optimum for providing mobile broadband back-haul, but so far the government has not taken a call around allocation of spectrum in these bands.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had proposed a light-touch regulation for the bands and suggested a fix fee mechanism for allocation of the spectrum. There was a proposal to delicense spectrum in E and V bands, which was opposed by telecom industry body COAI. The industry body wants assignment of such airwaves for back-haul to access service providers already having access spectrum and in case, telcos want to use it for access services, it should be auctioned.

Both the bands are being increasingly used by operators globally to meet mobile broadband back-haul requirements in a cost-effective manner. Prakash was speaking during a panel discussion organised by COAI on digital networks.
The secretary also said India is lagging far behind in wireline penetration and it has to be accelerated. Praising the work done by mobile operators during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Prakash said the country could not have dealt the pandemic without the telecom infrastructure, which has remained resilient throughout.

Trai chairman RS Sharma also lauded the telecom operators for their work, calling them Corona warriors.
Meanwhile, COAI concluded its annual general body meeting for the financial year 2019-20, with the announcement of its leadership for the term 2020-21. Ajai Puri, chief operating officer (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel, will now hold the position of chairman while Pramod Kumar Mittal, president, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, will be the vice-chairman of the association.