Jio urges Centre, Trai to ensure adequate spectrum for telcos
Reliance Jio has urged the government and the industry regulator to ensure that carriers have adequate airwave holdings, as the amount of spectrum they hold in India is the lowest per subscriber globally.
«I sincerely urge the regulators and policymakers of our nation to ascertain how India needs to expedite its spectrum pipeline as our operators work with the least amount of spectrum per subscriber compared to anywhere else in the world, especially sub-10GHz spectrum. Let us not fall behind in any way,» Jio president Mathew Oommen said.
He was addressing delegates at the seventh edition of ETTelecom 5G | 6G Congress 2024 Thursday. His comments came even as the government has initiated plans to launch India's second 5G spectrum auction from May 20.
The government plans to auction 10.5 GHz of 5G spectrum in eight bands — 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz. The airwaves are worth ₹96,317.65 crore at reserve price. Sub-GHz airwaves in the coveted 700/600 MHz bands, though, are not on offer this time.
Jio's Oommen also called on the government to expedite steps to prevent rampant fibre cuts and penalise those responsible, warning that vital telecom infrastructure was getting destroyed nationally.
«I'm requesting the help of policymakers across every state that we need to have active collaborative engagement so that no one can anymore destroy this critical telecoms infrastructure and not be penalised,» he said.
The telecom industry is extremely capital intensive, and it is
