5G spectrum auctions expected next year in India: Telecommunications Secy K Rajaraman

K Rajaraman, Secretary, Telecommunications and Chairman, Digital Communications Commission on Thursday asserted that 5G presents a huge opportunity for India and informed that the 5G spectrum auctions in the country will commence early next year.

While addressing a workshop, he highlighted the government's ambitions for making India a manufacturing hub and said that India’s extraordinary feat can be seen by observing the surge in the production of domestic electronics since 2014-15. 

Enormous growth of homegrown technologies should be tapped: K Rajaraman 

His comments came at a workshop by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, on the theme "Exploiting the Potential of Indian Telecom R&D Together - The Way Forward" along with the awardees of the Government of India's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) and Digital Communication Innovation Square (DCIS) schemes. He asked the C-DOT to lead the way in adopting 5G and 6G as quickly as possible, in collaboration with Indian businesses, start-ups, and universities.

He also underlined the importance of fostering collaboration among all essential stakeholders in order to realise the enormous potential of homegrown technologies and knowledge, which would pave the way for the Prime Minister's vision of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" and "Gati Shakti."

Rajaraman chaired the technical workshop, which also had in attendance, Anita Praveen, Special Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India.  The workshop's goal was to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders, including industry, R&D, academics, startups, and MSMEs, on a single platform to discuss the strengths and shortcomings of the indigenous manufacturing ecosystem and quickly develop successful innovations.

The workshop focused on the Indian manufacturing and startup ecosystem leveraging C-R&D DOT's expertise in multiple sectors of telecom to speed the indigenous creation of market-deployable solutions to meet domestic demand as well as export to other nations. The participants were informed about C-R&D DOT's efforts as well as the Department of Telecommunications' cutting-edge plans to foster the global spread of indigenously designed and manufactured technology in the workshop.

According to Ericsson, 5G is on course to become the dominant mobile access technology in terms of subscriptions globally by 2027, with 5G accounting for about 39% of mobile subscriptions or 500 million people in India by then.

With ANI Inputs

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