Spectrum auction soon; 5G rollout by year-end, says govt.
The Hindu
State-owned BSNL will begin 4G services this year, Minister Devusinh Chauhan tells RS
Spectrum auction will be conducted very soon, and the next-generation 5G services are expected to commence before the end of the year, Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan said in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
Replying to a supplementary question during Question Hour, Mr. Chauhan said four companies had been allotted spectrum for conducting trials which were expected to be completed soon.
In parallel, the Minister said, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had been asked to give its recommendations on the upcoming auction.
"We will conduct auctions very soon. By the end of this year, we will start 5G services in the country," he said.
He asserted that the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) would begin its 4G services this year.
The Minister said a "great revolution" had taken place in the telecom sector over the last seven years and that data consumption had soared while tariffs were at the lowest.
There was a robust public grievance mechanism in place and complaints pending for over 48 hours were escalated to senior officials, Mr. Chauhan said.
It was supposed to be an 11-day adventurous trip for a group of trekkers from Bengaluru who had reached Uttarakhand on May 29. Everything was going as planned until June 3 when the trip took a disastrous turn after the 22-member group got caught in a blizzard on the Sahastra Tal trek. Only 13 of them returned alive.
With 100% strike rate, Jana Sena Party achieves unprecedented feat in Andhra Pradesh. JSP president Pawan Kalyan’s steadfastness since forming the party a decade ago, and despite his humiliating defeat in the 2019 elections and the YSRCP leaders, right from the top, describing him as a ‘package star’ and stooping too low as to comment on his marital life, have all helped the party win its pride of place in the NDA alliance.