5G bids: BIF refutes claims on backdoor entry of tech cos
Industry body Broadband India Forum (BIF) on Friday said suggestions that captive networks should bid for spectrum in auctions is “extremely irrational”.
BIF refuted the “misinformation” being propagated to demand a level playing field between two completely different sets of services, public and private networks.
The comments came a day after telcos’ body COAI - which represents Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea - claimed that administrative allocation of spectrum for private 5G networks will be against tenets of fairness.The Celluar Operators’ Association of India (COAI) had lauded use of open bidding and transparent auction route by companies seeking 5G airwaves.
COAI had alleged that administrative allocation of spectrum for captive 5G networks is against principles of level playing field and effectively provides a “backdoor entry” to big technology players to provide 5G services and solutions to enterprises in India without equivalent regulatory compliance and payment of levies that telcos are subject to. BIF countered this saying such an argument if flawed and misleading.
“It is however, apparent that certain quarters and incumbents with vested interests are attempting to derail this progressive development through irrational, misleading and misinformed claims for a level playing field between the vastly different service domains of public networks and captive non-public networks,” BIF said.
BIF added that it is highly irreverent to imply that the Cabinet decision permitting allocation of direct spectrum to private enterprises offers a backdoor entry for them to get 5G spectrum and set up public/consumer 5G networks.
It argued that the suggestion that captive private networks should bid for spectrum in auctions is extremely irrational, given that their objective is to enhance efficiencies and not use the spectrum to provide commercial public services.All the four methods approved by the Cabinet and issued in the Notice Inviting Applications (or the bid document) for obtaining spectrum for captive private 5G nonpublic networks, have the involvement of telcos, it argued.
Even the fourth option of direct assignment of spectrum to the enterprises does not preclude the option that enterprises buying the spectrum directly from the government can have the captive network built by telcos for them. BIF contended that this, in fact, gives telcos undue advantage over the private enterprises.