Vodafone Idea supports affordable spectrum prices for empowering India’s telecom industry and making broadband accessible to all
Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) has written a letter to the department of telecom (DoT) urging to postpone spectrum auction till 2020. It says that quality radio waves will be needed only when the 5G ecosystem is ready in India. “Once the 5G ecosystem, including enabling hardware, develops and India-specific use cases are successfully piloted, a need for more quality spectrum will arise,” the company said.
The telecom major feels that a strong 4G network is essential for 5G. “Accordingly, telecom service providers in India are currently focused on optimising 4G networks and making them 5G ready, for which they have sufficient spectrum,” it added.
Spectrum should be affordable
Apart from urging the department to postpone spectrum auction till 2020, the letter stated that spectrum prices should be made affordable for the empowerment of India’s telecom industry. This, according to VIL, will help in making broadband accessible to all and achieving the larger vision of Digital India.
National Digital Policy will strengthen telecom
Vodafone Idea highlighted that the government’s recently launched National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018 would be of great support to the telecom sector of India. It stated that timely implementation of the policy would help in boosting digital economy and strengthen the financially stressed sector.