Government invites firms with Rs 100 cr net worth for private 5G network demand studies

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday announced to undertake demand studies for the direct assignment of spectrum to enterprises with net worth more than Rs 100 crore which are willing to set up private captive 5G networks.

Enterprises which are willing to set up Captive Non-Public Network (CNPN) by obtaining spectrum directly from DoT are invited to participate in this exercise, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) said in a statement.

The DoT has now launched a module on Saralsanchar portal for carrying out the demand studies from enterprises.

"Captive non-public networks can play a key role in developing industries by providing secure, ultra-reliable, low latency and high throughput communication using advanced technologies," said the DoT.

The demand studies come after the successful 5G spectrum auction that fetched the government more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore, led by Reliance Jio.

The government had issued the 'Guidelines for Captive Non-Public Network (CNPN) license' on June 27, aimed at establishing the legal framework for CNPNs.

The guidelines provide that the enterprises seeking to establish CNPN may obtain spectrum on lease from Telecom Service Providers or directly from DoT.

These guidelines also provide that DoT will undertake demand studies for direct assignments of spectrum to Enterprises setting up CNPNs.

The Department of Telecom, in its notice inviting applications (NIA) for the auction of spectrum in various bands, provided explicit clarity on the subject of CNPN, or private 5G captive networks.

Section 2.4 of the NIA on CNPN laid down the principle that a CNPN can be set up in any of the four possible ways, including the one where CNPNs for non-telecom verticals may obtain the spectrum directly from DoT and establish their own isolated network.

Private 5G captive networks are about the deployment of high speed, enhanced data capacity, and ultra-low latency applications inside a closed manufacturing unit, hospital, airport and shipping port, among others.

Such networks are single end-users (the enterprise itself) in the given location, unlike a vast number of users in public networks.