September 20, 2025
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Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3
Context
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget announcement that the Government proposes to conduct the “required spectrum auctions” in 2022 to facilitate the roll-out of 5G mobile phone services in fiscal 2022-23 has understandably triggered speculation including about the feasibility of the timeline.
- Commenting on the Budget announcement, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said TRAI was expected to submit its recommendations on the spectrum to be set aside for 5G by March, adding that the auction for the airwaves would be held soon after.
- While last week’s flurry of announcements have raised the possibility that the next auction of telecom spectrum may be held within the next few months, there is little clarity on the approach the Government plans to take with regard to the crucial issues surrounding the introduction of 5G services.
Issues
- Foremost are questions around the particular frequencies the regulator is likely to recommend,
- the Government’s plans on pricing the spectrum,
- the very viability of the new technology, both for the telecom companies and the economy as a whole.
- the sector’s appetite for the highly capital intensive 5G technology is unlikely to be substantial at the moment. With the financially stressed private telecom service provider industry now reduced to a near duopoly, as Vodafone Idea continues to bleed losses and subscribers and even plans to convert some of its outstanding interest dues to the DoT into an equity stake that will make the Union government the largest shareholder.
What is 5G?
- Technical specification for 5G –
- High data rates: For 4G a theoretical 100 Mbps(Mega bits), 5G tops at 10 Gbps(giga bits).
- Massive connectivity of 1 million connections /km2 (4G- 100thousand connections/km2).
- Ultra-low latency of 1 millisecond (4G has a latency of 10 ms).
- High reliability (99.999% for mission critical ‘ultra-reliable’ communications),
- Mobility at high speeds (up to 500 km/h i.e. high-speed trains).
- 30 Ghz of available spectrum in comparison to 3Ghz of 4G.
- 5G mainly works in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations.
- Currently 4G and earlier communication networks run only on low band spectrum, where the maximum speed is limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).
- The mid-band spectrum, on the other hand, offers higher speeds compared to the low band, but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals.
- Internet speeds in the high-band spectrum of 5G has been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (giga bits per second), while, in most cases, the maximum internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps.
5G deployment across the world
- Most countries that have commercialised 5G so far largely find the technology still predominantly deployed as an upgraded replacement for 4Gin terms of end use,
- The industrial and public utility applications envisaged still at least a few years away.
- Also, for the new technology to work at its optimum potential theGovernment would need to not only offer the key operational frequencies including the below 1 GHz, the C-Band frequencies around 3.5 GHz, and the higher 26 GHz but also crucially enable the transport or backhaul of signals between the base stations and telecom operator’s core network by offering no- to low-cost E-Band airwaves.
Conclusion
With the COVID-19 pandemic having shown up the existing mobile networks’ inadequacies in terms of reach, especially in enabling the delivery of education to remote and rural students, it may make the most sense to delay the introduction of 5G until policymakers are sure its economic payoff will outweigh the high cost.
The Hindu Link
Question- Endeavours for faster adoption of 5G technology should balance the high input costs with fulfilment of intended outcomes. Explain.
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