Communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday said the Cabinet has approved the refarming of 687 MHz of spectrum from various government ministries for the deployment of 5G and future 6G services.
The total worth of the spectrum that has been approved for refarming so far is estimated to be Rs 2 lakh crore, officials said. The spectrum will now be brought for auctions.
“By 2030, the telecom sector’s total spectrum demand is projected to reach 2000 MHz. Currently, we have 900 MHz, leaving a gap of 1100 MHz,” Scindia told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of Sanchar Saathi mobile app, National Broadband Mission 2.0 and the Intra circle roaming at ‘Digital Bharat Nidhi’ funded 4G mobile sites.
The refarming of 687 MHz spectrum brings the total available spectrum to 1587 MHz, Scindia said, adding that the remaining 413 MHz required to meet the 2030 demand would also be made available within the stipulated timeline.
Out of the 687 MHz spectrum approved, 328 MHz spectrum will be released immediately.
Lately, telecom operators have been asking for more spectrum from the government to improve 4G and 5G services, and also for 6G services.
The spectrum is being refarmed from the Ministry of Defence and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, for reallocation to telecom operators, officials said.
The minister added that a committee of secretaries is working on identifying more spectrum to refarm soon.
“A report will come by the middle of this year (on further spectrum refarming), and we would take that step to ensure that there are no bottlenecks for our telecom landscape to grow in India,” Scindia added.
SP Kochhar, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said, “it is extremely heartening to know that concrete steps have been taken and are being taken to firstly, recognize our demand of 2000 MHz for the IMT band, and actually taking strategic steps to allocate part of it to IMT immediately and continue this exercise so that 2000 MHz can be achieved.”
On Friday, the department of telecommunications (DoT) also launched the Sanchar Saathi app to make it easier for citizens to report any suspected fraud communications. The app will allow the public to flag such incidents directly from their mobile phone call logs.
The government in 2023 had launched Sanchar Saathi portal launched in 2023 has been an effective mechanism in the crackdown against fraud calls and the new app will double down on these efforts by ensuring a secure environment for subscribers.
Scindia said that the Sanchar Saathi initiative provides a safe and secure environment where privacy and security of each customer are safeguarded.