DoT provides significant relief for Indian Telecom Operators

The DoT has reportedly decided against providing direct spectrum to businesses for the construction of private networks.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has provided enormous assistance to Indian telecom providers. Direct spectrum allotment to businesses has already become a major problem for telecom providers back in 2022.

The DoT has reportedly decided against providing direct spectrum to businesses for the construction of private networks, according to a recent ET Telecom report.

Some significant businesses, including Tata Power and GMR among others, who were expecting to receive spectrum from the government will undoubtedly suffer as a result of this.

In accordance with the report, the DoT decided that giving the businesses spectrum directly would not be a sensible decision after evaluating the present legal landscape.

Businesses were pleased because they could use the spectrum to create captive private networks for both their own and other businesses. However, the telecoms were very opposed to it. Captive private networks will be in high demand in the 5G era, thus the telcos would have suffered greatly if the businesses had obtained government spectrum directly.

A captive private network is a type of network that provides restricted access to authorized users only. It is designed to create a secure and controlled environment for specific purposes. Captive private networks provide a way to create secure and controlled environments for specific user groups or purposes, allowing organizations to protect sensitive information, manage access, and ensure network integrity.

To set up captive private networks, businesses can either hire telcos' assistance or lease their spectrum. For the telecoms, which are scrambling to find methods to monetize 5G networks, this is a huge relief. But telecom department has not yet notified TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) of its choice.

The orginal rules that the telecom department provided last year are contravened by this choice. According to the rules, businesses might request direct access to government spectrum in order to build private networks. There will be no administrative allotment, India will maintain the current system of holding spectrum auctions for everyone who wants it.