5G Rollout in India Will Be Delayed Due to Coronavirus

The Wuhan originated Coronavirus has afflicted the world in more ways one can imagine. However, the manufacture that has arguably been nigh affected by the virus is the tech industry. Afterwards the counterfoil of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020, the Coronavirus is all set to delay the rollout of 5G in Republic of india.

According to analysts at ET Telecom, the 5G spectrum auction volition be delayed, as the threat of this deadly virus rises. Dorsum in 2019, the Section of Technology (DoT) gave clearance to the vendors of 5G gears to participate in the 5G trials in India. This included Huawei besides. However, with the rising threat of the Coronavirus, the makers of telecom gears based in Mainland china are facing great hindrances in manufacturing 5G gears. As the Chinese telecom gear makers are leading the 5G deployment in the world, vendors similar Huawei and ZTE are unable to evangelize equally expected.

The Indian government is planning to hold the 5G spectrum auction in the first quarter of 2021. It volition reportedly sale both 4G and 5G airwaves in this event. On the concerned topic, the enquiry head of SBICap securities, Rajiv Sharma had this to say, "If the Coronavirus menace continues for a few more months, the authorities may discover it challenging to sale expensive 5G spectrum earlier January-February 2021 since a prolonged epidemic would hit 5G network deployments and devices availability in India too, further reducing the business case for local telcos to participate meaningfully in whatsoever early 5G airwaves sale this year,".

Apart from Coronavirus, telcos like Airtel and Vodafone will most likely back out of the 5G spectrum sale due to high prices. The companies are worried about the adjusted gross acquirement (AGR), that the DoT charges as usage and licensing fee. Gopal Vittal, the CEO of Airtel, said that the prices of 5G are beyond their reach.

With the threat of the Coronavirus looming, analysts are predicting that it will affect the 5G rollout not only in India only on a global level. However, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), that operates the private telcos of India, has given a ray of hope. They said that the 5G rollout in India will non exist affected by Coronavirus as they take made deals with some gear makers that are not of Chinese origin. But according to the Swedish company, Ericsson, 5G connections will not be bachelor in the country until 2022.