India might commercially deploy 5G by 2020: 5G panel

5G technologies will enter services gradually, beginning in 2019 and advance toa full range of services by 2024, the report said.

The high-level forum constituted for identifying 5G deployment roadmap for India on Thursday submitted it's report titled 'Making India 5G Ready' to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The 5G High-Level Forum was set up by the Government in September 2017 to articulate the Vision for 5G in India and to recommend policy initiatives and action plans to realize this vision.

India might see the first 5G commercial deployment in 2020, said A.J. Paulraj, DoT secretary who chaired the steering committee of the 5G panel. 5G technologies in India will enter services gradually, beginning in 2019 and advance to a full range of services by 2024, the report said.

The Committee recommends fresh 5G spectrum be allocated as:

• For wireless access, licensed spectrum with an aggregate of 405MHz + 137 MHz below 4 GHz and 5.25 GHz + 8.3 GHz below 45 GHz.b.
• For backhaul, 14 GHz of unlicensed and 10 GHz of lightly licensed spectrum in the 57 to 86 GHz band.c.
• For WiFi, opening additional bands of unlicensed spectrum in the 5GHz band for outdoor use.

India is in its initial years of engagement in the global standards ecosystem. 5G offers a new opportunity to engage in the standards process. The Committee recommends both short-term and longer-term initiatives to develop a ten-year strategy for Information Technology Standards.

It also recommends that three expert committees on business, security and safety segments be created to develop clear guidelines on regulatory policy that can be promulgated by the Government.

The committee further recommends a broad planning estimate of INR 3000 million in the first-year, INR 4000 million in the second, INR 5000 million in Year 3 and INR 4000 million in year 4.

"Create a 5G Implementation Oversight Committee with participation from government, Academia, Industry, and R&D Labs to supervise 5G program implementation and take corrective steps where necessary," the report said.