Industry body demands deferring 5G auction

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a trade and industry body, on Thursday asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to delay the auction of 5G spectrum by at least three to five years so that the government gets proper valuations for 5G spectrum.

“If 5G spectrum is auctioned now, the license fees would be frozen for the next 20 years and the government will lose money. The operators will also lose since they will be able to monetize the bandwidth only after 3-5 years,” said Sandeep Aggarwal, Chairman, Telecom Committee, PHDCCI at the curtain raiser of Telecom Summit 2020 with the theme ‘5G Technology: Forging Ahead into a Smarter India’.

The government should not charge a license fee to the operators for the next two-three years after the auction. The government should also charge reasonable prices for 5G waves to make it sustainable as the present economic scenario is not good, he suggested.

The PHD Chamber in its budget suggestions also recommended declaring ‘Broadband a ‘utility’.

The Department of Telecom intends to auction 5G spectrum sometime this year itself, after having missed the 2019 deadline.

According to Sandeep Aggarwal, the Centre, states and local authorities should be obliged to improve building codes to include common duct along all roads from National highways, colony roads. Local bodies will also need to make arrangements so that all new houses/ buildings should have high-quality broadband connections.