After taking the industry by surprise with its decision to buy 5G spectrum in auction last year, Adani Group now says that it is unable to find suitable use cases and is going to miss the year-one rollout obligations set by the government.

Adani Data Networks, which acquired the spectrum in August last year, has decided to approach the department of telecommunications (DoT) seeking additional time to meet the rollout obligations, the deadline for which is August. For missing the timelines, penalties are levied on the companies concerned.

At a recent meeting convened by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for a status check on rollout obligations, Adani Group said that it has too little spectrum – 50-100 MHz – and is, therefore, not able to find suitable use cases to roll out any kind of services. The company told Trai that it has no option but to seek additional time from the DoT.

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An email query to Adani Group remained unanswered till the time of going to the press.

Telecom service providers like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have also not started using the 26 GHz spectrum for any services so far, but they are likely to do so closer to the date. These two service providers are, however, using 5G spectrum in the 3.6 GHz band for providing consumer services. Together, the two have rolled out 5G services in over 500 cities.

Vodafone Idea is the only telecom operator which has not started providing any services so far.

Analysts tracking the sector, however, are surprised at Adani Group’s inability to meet the deadline as the year-one roll-out obligations are very basic. For instance, in metro as well as non-metro circles all that is required is commercial launch of services anywhere in the area. This means in a circle like Delhi, the services can be made available just in one area, not the entire city. In a non-metro circle, the same needs to be done in at least one city.

The company could have either provided broadband services in any one area or connected any of its airport or port through data networks, analysts said.

In the 5G spectrum auctions held in July last year, Adani Data Networks had bought 400 MHz spectrum in the 26 GHz band for Rs 212 crore. The company has 100 MHz of 5G spectrum each in Gujarat and Mumbai, and 50 MHz each in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

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The company was given a unified licence by DoT for these six circles.

Analysts had then said that the licence would help the Group with its data centre business where data needs to be transferred within the country as well as outside.

In the absence of such a licence, Adani Group would have had to use the services of telecom operators to transfer data for which it needs to pay carriage charges.

The company had clarified that it does not intend to offer retail telecom services and has bought the 5G spectrum for setting up its private 5G network.

“We are participating in the 5G spectrum auction to provide private network solutions along with enhanced cyber security in the airport, ports & logistics, power generation, transmission, distribution and various manufacturing operations,” the company had said.