The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is going to auction the spectrum that the telcos primarily see as ether for backhaul services. We’re talking about E&V bands. The e-band spectrum consists of ether waves between 71 – 76 GHz and 81 – 86 GHz, while the V-band spectrum is ether waves in the 60 GHz band. The E&V band spectrum is considered ideal for providing high speed broadband services in rural India. According to a report by FinancialExpress, the government will auction spectrum in both bands during the upcoming spectrum auction scheduled for July 26.
How do the telcos get the e-band spectrum?
According to the report, DoT will provisionally allocate E-band spectrum to the telcos to help them launch 5G. Later, however, the telcos will have to pay for the E-band spectrum at a market price.
The Digital Communications Commission (DCC), the highest decision-making body in the DoT, had previously supported the recommendation of TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) to allocate E-band spectrum circularly to telcos through the administrative route depending on the need . This was recommended on the condition that the telcos would pay for this ether in the future based on the auction-based pricing mechanism.
However, the tech companies weren’t too happy with this recommendation. The tech companies believed that if there were an administrative allocation of E-band to the telcos, it would not be right.
But the telcos have communicated with the DoT about the importance of the E-band for their backhaul services, especially as they move towards 5G. The data load on the backhaul will increase several times once 5G comes, and so the telcos will need access to the E-band spectrum.
Vodafone Idea had already done a trial with Nokia with the E-band spectrum in the 80 GHz band. The telco and Nokia achieved a backhaul capacity of 9.85 Gbps using the E-band.
