Amid the industry's concerns over less-than-expected price cuts, Trai Chairman PD Vaghela has asserted that the regulator's recommendations of a 39 per cent drop in spectrum prices are rational, attractive and backed by scientific calculations. In view of the huge market potential of 5G, he is confident that the telecom industry will actively take part in the auction. He also expressed hope that the recommended reserve prices will attract bidders in the forthcoming auction.
Taking off from the telecom department's reference seeking auction-related recommendations, the Chairman said Trai considered various aspects like ease of doing business, stakeholder inputs and most importantly, the proliferation of 5G and use cases in the country to ensure that economic benefits of technology are derived by all sections of society. He said ‘if you see our recommendations on surrender fee, easy and flexible payment options, and leasing of spectrum for private networks, these are all aimed at ease of doing business and attracting investment into the telecom sector. While auctions and network rollout are important considerations, as a country, we need to facilitate penetration of 5G based technologies and use cases.
He said ‘a complete ecosystem needs to be created towards this objective, so we have recommended action plans for vertical sectors, i.e., industry sectors and social sectors that they should be actively preparing plans for adopting 5G applications. Stakeholders like farmers, fishermen, students, MSMEs etc. need to be further empowered to be part of the digital economy. He said 5G technology once implemented should create demand for telecom products, thereby improving revenue streams for telecom service providers, and should also help consumers and the public at large to become a part of the mainstream digital economy.
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