Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) will have to wait further for getting the backhaul spectrum from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The DoT is waiting for the final spectrum policy to be formulated before it starts giving the spectrum to the telcos for backhaul. For the unaware, the backhaul spectrum is different from the access spectrum. According to an FE report, the telcos have said that they will abide by all the final rules that the spectrum policy may come with, thus, there’s no need for the DoT to delay the allocation of the backhaul spectrum.
Telcos Have Been Waiting Since a Year and a Half
The telecom operators have been waiting to get the backhaul spectrum from the DoT for a year and a half now. But the DoT is in the process of coming up with the final spectrum policy and the telecom department will only allocate spectrum after that. The DoT is working out whether the telcos and the other kinds of communication companies including the satcom ones can be provided spectrum through administrative allocation. Currently, the access spectrum is provided by the government via an auction route. This process is followed to keep everything transparent for everyone. However, the satcom industry wants the government to start providing spectrum through administrative allocation. Even the private companies which are looking to build private 5G networks in the future want the telecom department to allocate spectrum administratively. But the telcos have time and again opposed the move. According to the telecom operators in India, everyone should get the spectrum in a fair manner through the auctions. Regardless, the telcos haven’t received any backhaul spectrum from the government because the DoT has not worked out the final spectrum policy yet. But it shouldn’t take a lot of time now as the DoT is already in the process to do so.
