Published: Monday, January 18, 2021, 12:51 [IST]
New Delhi, Jan 18: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sought inputs from the telecom operators and other industry experts on the sale and use of radio frequency spectrum over the next 10 years, including the 5G bands.
What is 5G?
Also known as fifth generation, 5G is the recent upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks. This mode mainly works in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high frequency spectrum - all of which have their own uses as well as limitations.
It can be seen that the low band spectrum has shown great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange, the maximum speed is limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second). The telecom operators can use and install it for commercial cellphone users who may not have specific demands for very high speed internet, the low band spectrum may not be optimal for specialised needs of the industry.
Mobile networks have seen a major transformation since the launch of the first-generation mobile services, which were capable of transmitting only voice calls. The current generation of mobile networks (fourth-generation, or 4G) is adept in handling higher data speeds required for multimedia streaming, besides providing basic network operations like voice calls, messages and web browsing. However, with the changing connectivity needs, rising mobile data traffic and a new category of connected-ecosystem products, there is a need for yet newer generation of mobile network that can provide even higher data speeds at low latency and enhanced throughput to handle more simultaneous connections without causing disruptions. And, this is exactly what 5G telephony is all about.