Indian telecom operators are asking the Telecom department to ensure optimum availability of spectrum in the 3300-3600 Mhz mid band earmarked for 5G services.

“We have been taking up these issues with DoT/WPC regularly. We have been requesting DoT to kindly recognize the importance of the 3300-3600 MHz band for 5G, and thus, this band should be protected and exclusively used for 5G services,” DG, COAI, SP Kochhar told ET. “Presently, the availability of only 175 MHz spectrum in the 3300 MHz band is grossly inadequate.”

Kochhar said Indian telcos can make themselves ready for 5G when at least 80MHz per telco is identified in the 3.5GHz band. Globally a 5G operator is generally assigned a contiguous block of 100 MHz of spectrum in the mid-band.

Kochar said that if 175 MHz spectrum is auctioned, then each private operator can potentially get an equal share of 60 MHz and such a situation will lead to limiting the usage of this band for 4G only and would adversely impact the rollout of 5G services in the country.

COAI has also urged the DoT to ensure at least 400 MHz per telco in mmwave bands (26, 28, 37 GHz) and at least 2x10MHz per operator in sub-GHz bands 600MHz and 700MHz.

3300-3600 MHz (300 MHz) frequency band was envisaged for the 5G services. However, as per the recent spectrum allocation document, the government is allocating just 175 MHz (3425 -3600 MHz) for 5G after ISRO and the Department of Space (DoS) raised concern in allowing 3400-3425 MHz portion for 5G since they need this for NaVIC application.

Last year in February, ISRO raised interference issues with the reception of its four earth stations for NavIC applications. These four locations of the earth-stations are Hassan, Bhopal, Jodhpur and Shillong. https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com