No entry fee for companies seeking 5G Captive Networks

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued a set of guidelines for the deployment of private captive 5G networks, along with new guidelines to facilitate spectrum leasing for the first time in India. This has been done with the aim of facilitating the use of 5G radio waves for the development of use cases such as machine-to-machine communications, artificial intelligence, internet of things, etc.

The Captive Non-Public Networks (CNPN) regulations require that companies wishing to obtain spectrum directly from the government obtain a 10-year renewable license, for which the government will not charge any license fees. However, only those companies with a net worth of at least Rs 100 crore will be eligible to establish private 5G networks, and the applicant will be required to pay a one-time non-refundable application processing fee of Rs 50,000 and the licensee will be required to follow the rules. network security regulations stipulated with respect to the acquisition of telecommunications equipment from reliable sources.

In the case of spectrum leasing, technology companies may lease radio waves from one or more telecommunications service providers; they must present the details of the spectrum band, the amount of spectrum, the lease period, the geographical area, the geographical coordinates. of the logical perimeter of the premises delimited to the government. In addition, the income obtained from the lease of spectrum will be part of the gross income of the telecommunications companies.

In particular, for CNPNs, the DoT has restricted the use of such networks for private use only, prohibiting private networks from connecting to public networks “in any way.” In addition, both telcos and technology companies that lease the spectrum will need to ensure that there is no interference with any public network or other licensed spectrum user. On the scope of the CNPN (captive non-public network) license for enterprises, the DoT said that such a licensee may establish an isolated indoor or intra-premise captive non-public network for its own use within the license’s areas of operation.

Earlier this month, in addition to announcing the auction of spectrum for the deployment of 5G services throughout the country, the government had announced the proposal that technology companies acquire spectrum directly from it to test and create industry 4.0 applications, such as machine-to-machine communications, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, etc.