Mega 5G Spectrum Auction

In News

• Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the auction of airwaves capable of offering fifth generation, or 5G, telecom services, including ultra high-speed Internet.

• The Union Cabinet gave its nod for setting up captive 5G networks by big tech firms.
• The auction of over 72 GHz of the spectrum will be held by 2022 July-end.

Spectrum Auctions

• Devices such as cellphones and wireline telephones require signals to connect from one end to another. 
• These signals are carried on airwaves, which must be sent at designated frequencies to avoid any kind of interference.
• The Union government owns all the publicly available assets within the geographical boundaries of the country, which also include airwaves. 
• With the expansion in the number of cellphone, wireline telephone and internet users, the need to provide more space for the signals arises from time to time.
• To sell these assets to companies willing to set up the required infrastructure to transport these waves from one end to another, the central government through the DoT auctions these airwaves from time to time.
• These airwaves are called spectrum, which is subdivided into bands which have varying frequencies. 
• All these airwaves are sold for a certain period of time, after which their validity lapses, which is generally set at 20 years.

5G Spectrum

• About 5G Technology:
  • It is the latest upgrade in the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks with reduced latency than 4G.
    • 5G technology offers an extremely low latency rate, the delay between the sending and receiving information.
    • From 200 milliseconds for 4G, 5G brings it down to 1 millisecond(1ms).
• It works in three bands of the spectrum with their respective pros and cons.
  • Low Band Spectrum
    • It shows great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange with a maximum speed limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).
    • Telcos can use and install it for commercial cellphone users who may not have specific demands for very high-speed internet.
    • It may not be optimal for the specialised needs of the industry.
  • Mid-Band Spectrum
    • It offers higher speeds compared to the low band but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals.
    • It may be used by industries and specialised factory units for building captive networks that can be moulded into the needs of that particular industry.
  • High-Band Spectrum
    • It offers the highest speed of all three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
    • Internet speeds have been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (gigabits per second).
• Importance: Operators will use a combination of different spectrum bands to deliver 5G services, and it will play a critical role in determining the speed and range of coverage.

Image Courtesy: Nokia 

Benefits of 5G

• It will enable the development, testing and proliferation of 5G technology system components, cross-sectoral use cases, besides setting up the foundation for the development of the “6G Technology landscape” in the country.
• The users will be able to stream videos with multiple camera angles during sports matches or even play immersive video games using VR headsets or other accessories.
• It will also enable a mesh of connected Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices and services with zero-fail rate, as in the case of connected cars.
• Other Benefits 
  • Healthcare: Healthcare providers can create sensor networks to track patients and share information faster than ever before.
  • Public Safety: A vast network and rapid response times mean that public works can respond to incidents and emergencies in seconds rather than minutes, and municipalities can react fast and with reduced costs.
  • Autonomous Vehicles: 5G will allow vehicles to communicate between them and with infrastructure on the road, improving safety and alerting drivers to travel conditions and performance information.

Source: TH