World Radio Communication Conference-2019
Sanjay Singh / New Delhi
Ahead of the International Telecom Union’s upcoming World Radio Communication Conference-2019 scheduled to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt) in October, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will meet on June 17.
The World Radio Communication Conference will take a final call on which band of spectrum will be globally assigned for 5G services. It also aims to revise and review global radio regulations, an International treaty that governs use of radio frequency spectrum.
The high-level inter-ministerial meeting, which will be chaired by top DoT officials and officials from the Wireless Planning Cellto finalize a master list of spectrum bands that India intends to push for deployment in 5G telecom services at the International Telecom Union’s World Radio Communication Conference.
Besides representatives from DoT senior officials from the Ministry of Defence, Department of Space, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), I&B, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India (AAI), state-run broadcaster, Doordarshan,in addition to senior executives from telecom companies, chip makers, networks will also participate in the meeting.
The meeting is aimed to discuss and work out on building consensus on new spectrum bands that will be helpful for successful rollout and development of 5G ecosystem in India. Based on the decision taken, India will therefore take it up at the World Radio Communication Conference-2019.
The meeting is crucial, coming as it does on the heels of new telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad setting a 100-day deadline to start 5G trials, and also signalling that the next spectrum sale, which would include 5G airwaves, will be held in calendar 2019.
Spectrum bands which are most likely to be included are 600 MHz, 1.4 GHz, 2.6 GHz, 4.8 GHz, 26 GHz, 31GHz, 47 GHz and the E&V bands. The E&V bandsinclude airwaves, which are in 71-to-86 GHz and 57-71GHz ranges, which are cost-effective and conducive for backhaul services and mobile broadband.
Post-meeting, a detailed consultations will follow between multi-ministerial representatives to build consensus around spectrum bands, including millimeterwaves that can be supported globally at WRC-19 for creating an effective 5G ecosystem in India.