4 things IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Lok Sabha about 5G rollout – Times of India

The communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw gave a written reply to Lok Sabha on 5G rollout in the country. The minister while replying to a Parliament question on 5G network the minister shared few details about the rollout. Here’s what he said:
5G services rolled out in 50 towns across India
The minister said that telecom companies have rolled out 5G services to 50 towns across the country since the launch on October 1. Reliance Jio 5G services are available in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Varanasi, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Nathdwara (a town in Rajasthan), and all the 33 district headquarters of Gujarat. Gujarat is the first state in India where 5G services from Jio are available across the state. Arch rival Airtel is offering its 5G services in 12 major cities across the country, These include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur, Varanasi, Panipat, Gurugram, Guwahati and Patna.
Rollout in its initial phase
He said that the rollout of the 5G network is in its initial phase. He, however, asserted that so far no complaints have been received against any telecom company regarding 5G services. “No feedback/complaints have been received/reported by telecom service providers (TSPs) for any difficulties faced by 5G users wherever the 5G network is available,” Vaishnaw said.

5G services free right now
To a separate query on 5G tariffs, Vaishnaw said telcos have reported that they are presently providing 5G services to their subscribers with 5G enabled devices at no extra cost.
Telecom companies have 5 years to meet minimum 5G rollout obligations
Replying to a question about expansion of 5G services across the country, the minister said that the minimum rollout obligations are required to be met over a period of five years in a phased manner from the date of allocation of 5G spectrum. “The Department has specified rollout obligations in the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) for auction of access spectrum. Any specific city/ metro for deployment of 5G services in the country has not been mentioned,” he said. “Further expansion of mobile network beyond the mandatory rollout obligations, depends on the techno commercial consideration of the TSPs,” Vaishnaw added.

The minister said that in order to facilitate rollout of telecom network (including 5G) and expansion of telecommunication infrastructure, the government has taken various policy initiatives such as making sufficient spectrum available for mobile services through auction, allowing spectrum sharing and trading, removal of additional spectrum usage charge (SUC) of 0.5% for spectrum sharing, allowing sharing of infrastructure by TSPs.
Government had put 72,098 MHz of spectrum (technology neutral) to auction, of which 51,236.2 MHz (i.e. 71% of the total) was allocated to the TSPs with bid amounting to Rs 1,50,173.29 crore.