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No direct 5G spectrum allocation anti-competitive for enterprises: BIF
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IANS | 27 Jun, 2022
As India prepares for 5G spectrum auction next month, the Broadband
India Forum (BIF) on Monday said that not allowing direct spectrum
allocation to enterprises will be anti-competitive and only favour the
telecom operators.
Based on some of the media reports,
it is understood that the government is initially considering to include
only the framework for enterprises to set up private 5G networks in
partnership with telecom operators, by taking spectrum on lease or by
getting their networks built by them.
BIF said in a statement
that such an action, if taken, will provide a regulatory advantage to
one side, more so since that side is already "overly strong and has the
advantages of huge external market power of an incumbent network, which
directly impacts the businesses of the weak non-telecom vertical
players, i.e. enterprises".
The Department of Telecom has
released a notice inviting applications (NIA) for the auction of
spectrum in 600, 700, 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300, 2500, 3300 MHz and
26GHz bands.
The NIA provides explicit clarity on the subject of Captive Non-Public Networks (CNPN).
"The
Section 2.4 of the NIA on CNPN has laid down the principle that a CNPN
can be set up in any of the four possible ways, including the one where
CNPNs for non-telecom verticals may obtain the spectrum directly from
DoT and establish their own isolated network," read the BIF letter.
The
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in its recommendations,
has also clearly stated the rationale for including direct allocation of
spectrum to non-telecom verticals/enterprises for captive private 5G
networks.
"The government must prevent distortion of competition
and undue advantage to certain industry sections," the industry body
reiterated.
According to TV Ramachandran, President, BIF, if
media reports are taken to be true, "these guidelines would surely
distort competition and go against the essence of the Cabinet decision
as well as the NIA dated 15th June 2022, wherein there was no indication
that the options for incumbents to offer these services first were to
be facilitated".
"Besides creating undesired differences in the
system at the very beginning, it would also lead to uncertainty and a
Hobson's choice for the enterprises for setting up their CNPNs. That, in
turn, would lead to suboptimal outcomes for them as regards efficiency,
quality and cost of service being offered/made available to them," he
stressed.
The industry body requested the government to "truly implement the Cabinet decision in letter and spirit".
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