5G Auction of India: Adani Aiming New Vertex with Private 5G Solutions

26th July, 2022 can be a big day for Indian telecom. Well great golden days of Indian telecom is long gone. Presently only three private telcos and one govt. backed telco (BSNL & MTNL merger is unofficially done) are existing. But with the introduction of 5G, the telecom boom may reappear in the industry despite more debts will put on the carriers. 

The auction for 5G spectrum will start in few hours. Despite government brings huge platter of 72000 MHz of airwaves across 9 bands (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 3.3 GHz, and 26 GHz), there are only four bidders - Jio, Airtel, Vi and Adani Data Networks. 

While existing private players will try to top up their existing buckets of airwaves in the bands of 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300MHz and get their pockets burnt for 700MHz and 3.3GHz, new telecom applicant Adani Data Networks will eye for 26GHz band as the mother company is deeply into construction projects like airport, smart city, ports etc, where they will launch private 5G networks. Adani group clears their intention not to jump into consumer mobile business. 

It was expected that many tech players would interested in this bidding for rolling out private 5G networks. And telcos did a cry that time. Eventually nobody except Adani showed interest in private 5G. 

Few points to be noted down:

1. This is the first time India will lease the spectrum of 600MHz, 3.3GHz and 26 GHz bands. 

2. Though we are calling it 5G spectrum auction, companies can use the spectrum for deploying any technology i.e. the spectrum will be technology neutral. 

3. Winning in the bid will give the companies right to use for 20 years. 

4. Operators will have to pay zero SUC (Spectrum Usage Charge) as per Telecom Reforms Policy, drafted in September 2021. Also there are more flexible payment options. 

5. Analysts believe as only Jio will buy spectrum in 800 MHz band and Airtel/Vi would go for 900/1800MHz as the top up. All three can buy 2300MHz for their 4G spectrum top up. But 600/700/3300 MHz will be their top priority for 5G roll out. It is to be reminded that last time 700MHz spectrum had no taker due to high price. 

6. Government expects faster 5G roll out - targets initially in top 13 cities of the country. 

7. Passive infrastructure providers like Summit Digitel (formerly Jio Infra), American Tower Corporation, Indus Towers and smaller tower companies will play vital role in the deployment of 5G networks. 

8. Adani Data Networks is eyeing high band spectrum for rolling out high frequency, low latency private network solutions mostly for their own business. 

Previously options for private wireless networks were very limited - WiFi or proprietary network technologies like LoRa or Sigfox. These legacy private networks were adequate for connecting computer to internet but of limited Industrial IoT (IIoT) use because of the coverage and security limitations, incompatibility with public cellular networks, and high cost of managing networks. There are mainly three types of private networks - Full Private, Private Shared and Hybrid Private. 

Private LTE/5G networks are getting traction globally. In April 2020 Germany’s telecommunications regulator Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency or BNetzA) awarded 33 private 5G licences to different industry leaders like BASF, BMW, Bosch, Lufthansa, Siemens, Volkswagen etc. In September 2020, Germany awarded another 74 licences for private 5G networks. All German private 5G will be on 3.6-3.8 GHz band. Though most private 5G deployments are entirely bypassing the mobile operators, sometimes they are building the network, like Vodafone Deutschland is working with Lufthansa Technik to build the 5G network at an aircraft hangar at Hamburg Airport.

France, UK, US and Australia are also working on to bring the policy for private 5G. Private 5G networks are kind of wireless intranet with more than 100 Gbps speed with more control of own. The applications will be mostly AI-driven and scope is limitless. 

9. For Jio, Airtel and Vi - their 4G networks are mostly upgraded in such a way, 5G installation will be very easy. But I don't expect 5G to be cheap enough like as with 4G. Also all operators are yet to recover investment from 4G. Initially 5G will be available in certain pockets only, and I believe consumers will not opt for 5G very soon. 

10. 5G will introduce little known tech players like Altiostar, Mavenir (read more) etc, with deployment of India's own 5G system with Open RAN ecosystem (read more about Open RAN ecosystem here).