While sharing the government’s plans to deploy 1.25 lakh mobile sites in the BSNL network based on indigenously developed technology gears, Vaishnaw expressed concern in an interview about the shortage of semiconductors and said the first project proposal for the high-tech electronic chips will be approved in next few months this year.
“We are progressing very fast with the development of our own 5G technology stack. There is a great interest among the whole world community to have a good trusted and affordable technology source for telecommunications, because telecommunications is the primary consumption point for all digital services today. “People want a reliable telecommunications solution. And as you know, the confidence that India can bring is unmatched by any other country,” Vaishnaw said.
Several US and European-led countries have blocked 5G telecommunications equipment from Chinese companies. India has also set up a process to approve reliable telecommunications equipment in local area networks.
The minister said the recently developed 4G native technology stack is now mature, scalable and can be deployed across more than one lakh of towers.
“Billions of simultaneous calls have been made to test its robustness. Our target is to deploy more than 1.25 lakh towers in the next few months. 2G and 3G equipment needs to be replaced by 4G. The only challenge is semiconductor chips that go into spokes, ”Vaishnaw said.
He said semiconductor plant proposals received under Rs 76,000 crore Semicon Mission are being evaluated by the government.
“We are in a very advanced stage of evaluating the applications, which were received in February. I do not want to comment on their status at this time. But we believe that in the next few months we should have the first agreement that signed this year, ”he added.
The minister met in mid-June with semiconductor technology firm IMEC at its headquarters in Belgium, which is in talks with two of the applicants to provide technology for making electronic chips in India.
Vedanta Foxconn JV, IGSS Ventures and ISMC have proposed to set up electronic chip manufacturing plants with USD 13.6 billion (more than Rs 1.06 lakh crore) investment and have the support of USD 5.6 billion (about Rs 43,800 crore) from sought the Center under the Rs. 76,000 crore Semicon India program.
Israel-based ISMC Analog Fab Private Ltd has expressed willingness to set up a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Karnataka at a cost of Rs 22,900 crore.
The government expects an investment of approximately Rs 1.7 lakh crore and 1.35 lakh jobs to be created in the next four years under the Cabinet Semiconductor Incentive Scheme.
Some telecommunications equipment manufacturers have a 6-8 month delay in supplying equipment from the time they receive purchase orders due to the shortage of semiconductors. The shortage is also expected to affect the 5G network in India.
On the 5G deployment, the minister said he expects the upcoming spectrum auction to end in July and that the deployment of the services will begin in August-September.
The government has also opened up a limited amount of spectrum in the E-band, which can be used to connect mobile towers for high-speed data transmission as required for 5G services.
The minister said the spectrum in E-band could also be used to provide 5G services to customers, but the government has opened it up to connect mobile towers only.
“Trai is coming up with a dynamic spectrum sharing consultation paper to enable telecommunications operators to leverage evolving technologies and be able to monetize airwaves, and discourage idle airwaves,” a senior official told ET. The official added that dynamic spectrum sharing will also facilitate faster 5G deployments.
He said the use of the E-band spectrum is subject to recommendations from telecommunications regulator Trai.
“Trai will eventually publish recommendations on this. This is a case in which we said that Trai’s recommendation is the last word. Trai has given a preliminary recommendation that this point-of-time event can be used as a backhaul, but as and “when it is auctioned or as and when the auction price is determined by Trai, the process will have to be adjusted accordingly,” Vaishnaw said.
Asked whether the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommendations would be implemented on a retrospective basis, the minister said there was no decision yet and everything would depend on the regulator’s recommendation.
Telecommunication players such as Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea encouraged the government to allocate the E-band spectrum through an auction, while internet companies asked to allocate the radio waves in this band without auction.
The Trai recommended the allocation of E-band on a link-to-link basis through the online registration process on a separate web portal. The regulator also said the links should be protected on a “first come, first served” basis, which amounts to allocating carriers on a first-come-first-served basis.