India will receive 5G services - 10 times faster than 4G - in March 2023, union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the day after the cabinet meet, the 5G spectrum auction. With a validity of 20 years, a total of 72 GHz (gigahertz) spectrum is to go up for auction at the end of July.

"Telecom is the primary source of digital consumption, and is very important to bring trusted solution in telecom. India has its own stack of 4G like radio, equipment and handset and similar goals are being eyed for the 5G technology," communication and electronic and information technologies to the press agency ANI. Vaishnaw is today in Paris for the VivaTech 2022 event, an event for startups.

"5G is ready in the lab. By the end of March 2023, 5G will also be ready to deploy in the field," he added.

The government said in a statement on Wednesday that the Ministry of Telecommunication’s proposal to hold a spectrum auction, where spectrum would be allocated to successful bidders for the provision of 5G services to the public and society - the union cabinet apparently used to be.

"The spectrum auction will be benefitted by the Telecom Sector Reforms announced in September, 2021. The reforms include zero Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) on the spectrum acquired in the upcoming auction, providing a significant relief to the service providers in terms of the operating cost of telecom networks. Further, the requirement of submitting a financial bank guarantee equivalent to one annual instalment has also been done away with," it further underlined.

In a tweet, Vaishnaw defined it as "the beginning of a new era for Indian telecom". "The time is not far away when India is going to emerge as a leading country in field of 5G technology and the upcoming 6G technology," the government statement highlighted.

In March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country was ready to launch 6G services at the end of the decade. Using 5G technology, he said: “This will boost growth in every sector like agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, and logistics. This will also increase convenience and create many employment opportunities,”