The norms for captive non-public networks call for enterprises wanting to obtain spectrum directly from the government to take a 10-year renewable license, for which the government won't charge any license fee.
Only those enterprises with a net worth of at least Rs 100 crore will be eligible for setting up private 5G networks.
The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) has issued a set of guidelines for the rollout of captive private 5G networks, alongside fresh guidelines to facilitate spectrum leasing for the first time in India. This has been done with an aim of facilitating the use of 5G airwaves for the development of use cases such as machine-to-machine communications, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, etc.
The norms for captive non-public networks (CNPN) call for enterprises wanting to obtain spectrum directly from the government to take a 10-year renewable license, for which the government won’t charge any license fee. However, only those enterprises with a net worth of at least Rs 100 crore will be eligible for setting up private 5G networks, and an applicant will have to pay a one-time non-refundable application processing fee of Rs 50,000 and the licensee will be required to follow stipulated network security norms regarding the procurement of telecom equipment from trusted sources.
In the case of spectrum leasing, tech companies will be allowed to lease airwaves from one or more telecom service providers and will have to submit the details of the spectrum band, the quantum of the spectrum, the period of the lease, the geographic area, the Geo coordinates of the logical perimeter of the defined premises to the government. Further, revenue earned from the leasing spectrum will be part of telecom companies’ gross revenue.
Notably, for CNPN, the DOT has restricted the use of such networks only to private use, disallowing private networks from connecting to public networks “in any manner”. Additionally, both telecom companies and tech companies leasing spectrum will have to ensure that there is no interference caused to any public network or any other licensed user of the spectrum. On the scope of the CNPN (captive non-public network) license for enterprises, the DOT said such a licensee may establish an indoor or within premise isolated captive non-public network for own use within the areas of operation of license.
In the case of spectrum leasing, tech companies will be allowed to lease airwaves from one or more telecom service providers and will have to submit the details of the spectrum band, the quantum of the spectrum, the period of the lease, the geographic area, the Geo coordinates of the logical perimeter of the defined premises to the government. Further, revenue earned from the leasing spectrum will be part of telecom companies’ gross revenue.
In the case of spectrum leasing, tech companies will be allowed to lease airwaves from one or more telecom service providers and will have to submit the details of the spectrum band, the quantum of the spectrum
Earlier this month, alongside announcing the spectrum auction for the rollout of 5G services across the country, the government had announced the proposal for tech companies to acquire spectrum directly from it to test and build industry 4.0 applications such as machine-to-machine communications, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, etc.
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