Lok Sabha Question No. 1574 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-07-31
Subject: Implementation of 5G Technology
Ministry: COMMUNICATION
Asked by: Shri Harish Chandra Meena, Shri Benny Behanan, Shri Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, Shri Anto Antony, Shri K Sudhakaran

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1574 TO BE ANSWERED ON 31 ST  JULY, 2024

## IMPLEMENTATION OF 5G TECHNOLOGY

## 1574   SHRI SAPTAGIRI SANKAR ULAKA:

SHRI ANTO ANTONY:

SHRI BENNY BEHANAN:

SHRI K SUDHAKARAN:

SHRI HARISH CHANDRA MEENA:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of quarterly adoption rates of 5G technology in India since its implementation in October 2022;
- (b) Whether the Government has undertaken any initiatives for building 5G infrastructure and for promoting R&D, if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  taken  any  steps  to  develop  and  deploy  new  use  cases  for consumers for widespread adoption of 5G technology and if so, details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. PEMMASANI CHANDRA SEKHAR)

- (a) Adoption rate of any technology can be assessed through the growth of its user base and installed infrastructure. Accordingly, cumulative quarter-wise growth of data users of 5G services and installed 5G Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs), is provided at Annexure-I .
- (b) & (c) Government has taken several initiatives for proliferation of 5G services, which, inter alia, include the following:
- i. Assignment of sufficient spectrum for mobile services through auction.
- ii. Spectrum sharing, trading and surrender has been permitted as per extant Notice Inviting Application (NIA) terms & conditions and guidelines issued from time-to-time.
- iii. Simplification  of  Procedure  for  SACFA  (Standing  Advisory  Committee  on  Radio Frequency Allocations) clearance.
- iv. Notification of Right of Way (RoW) Rules and launch of PM GatiShakti Sanchar portal has resulted in streamlining of RoW permissions and expeditious clearance for installation of telecom infrastructure.
- v. Provision has been made in RoW Rules for application and time-bound permission for usage of street furniture for installation of small cells and telegraph line.

Apart from above mentioned policy interventions, Government has also initiated several steps, to promote Research & Development (R&D) as well as to develop and deploy new use cases for widespread adoption of 5G technology, inter-alia, including the following:-

-  Indigenous 5G test beds :- The Indigenous 5G test beds have been made available for usage  by  various  organizations  including  Start-ups  and  Micro,  Small  &  Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
-  5G Use Case Labs :- Steps have been initiated to set up one hundred 5G Use case labs at higher  educational  institutions across all States/Union  territories to facilitate the development, experimentation of 5G applications in various socioeconomic verticals.
-  Indigenous 5G Technology :- Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), a telecom R&D  centre  of  Government  of  India,  has  indigenously  built  4G  solution  which  is currently being deployed in the BSNL network. 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) converged core (supporting 4G/5G data/voice) has also been developed by C-DoT and is ready for deployment. Further, Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) compliant 5G equipment is also being developed by C-DoT.

Annexure to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1574 to be answered on 31.07.2024.

Quarter wise count of data users of 5G services and installed 5G Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs):

| Quarter Ending   |   Count of data users of 5G services (in crores) |   Count of 5G BTSs installed in the country |
|------------------|--------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
| As on 30.04.2023 |                                              5.9 |                                      175006 |
| QE Jun-23        |                                              7.6 |                                      274174 |
| QE Sep-23        |                                              9.9 |                                      365655 |
| QE Dec-23        |                                             13.1 |                                      412214 |
| QE Mar-24        |                                             15.8 |                                      435720 |
| As on 31.05.2024 |                                             17.9 |                                      446000 |

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