Govt harmonising spectrum for 5G

Barcelona (Spain): The government has started tuning spectrum for 5G services as part of its road map to become early adopter of the next generation services, which is expected to provide download speed over 1,000 megabit per second on mobile devices.

“On spectrum, we are already more or less aligned with global position in 5G. Those bands we are harmonising in line with global community,” Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said.

She was here to attend global telecom event Mobile World Congress and held meeting with key players in the sector, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei, Qualcomm, Mediatek, NTT, and Intel.

The Department of Telecom has started harmonising spectrum in 3,500 megahertz band and 26 gigahertz band along with E and V band, she said.

At present, 4G services are provided in spectrum band below 2,600 Mhz. With increase in frequency band count, the signal coverage area reduces, but as per technology trend, speed of transmitting data has been increasing. The government has already harmonised spectrum in 700 MHz band which can be used for 5G services. Telecom players are running trials to use 5G in automated cars, robotic surgery from remote locations, education etc.

Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha has asked technology companies to look for using 5G services in agriculture sector as well, she said.

Sundararajan said, before finalisation of standards Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE , NTT and Samsung have started deepening their work on 5G in India.