Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has urged that businesses be subjected to stringent norms before being allowed to set up “captive non-public networks”, according to a letter sent to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary K Rajaraman.
The move comes just days after the cabinet allowed businesses to build private networks by allotting spectrum directly to them by the DoT despite objections from telecom companies.
COAI, in a letter dated June 18, had urged telecom companies not to allocate spectrum in the non-international mobile telecom (5G) band allotted to them.
It further requested that the scope of such private network be limited to machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and plant automation within the premises of the plant.
According to COAI, it wants to ensure that they are not connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), cloud platform, any other private network or multiple offices and buildings.
Further, it said that spectrum allotted to end users should not result in establishment of third parties or middlemen acting on behalf of the company.
This is because allowing third parties or intermediates to set up and operate networks for private networks would allow third parties to serve as telecommunications service providers (TSPs), similar to TSPs, according to COAI. Without going through the auction process.
However, as a result, private network owners, like unified licensees, must own all equipment deployed for the purpose of the private network and must not lease or rent it from third parties. If they choose to do so, they will have to go through the same process as TSPs to get spectrum.
If this step is taken, the move could lock down other service providers such as global tech giants Google and Amazon as well as IT firms and only a few telcos will be able to cooperate with businesses.
In the latter, it was stated that the use cases for the general public cannot be a part of the captive network and several stakeholders have requested that the use cases for financial inclusion as well as agriculture sector connections should be used by the captive network. to be generated.
However, telcos have claimed that where financial inclusion is intended to reach 100% of the population, and the agriculture industry needs to connect 70% of the population, such use cases cannot be handled by captive networks.
Further, requests for spectrum allocation for setting up private networks for vehicle-to-vehicle connections, drone control and M2M connectivity from gadgets cannot be accepted.
COAI has argued that there is already a lack of harmonized spectrum for TSP networks, justifying its position that no IMT band spectrum should be given to captive networks.
If the other bands expected to be recognized for IMT were not reserved, the TSP would be obliged. In that case they will not be able to plan their network properly to meet the demand of the client.
According to the association, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has been accused of ignoring the issue by recommending 3.7-3.8 GHz and 28.5-29.5 GHz for private captive networks.
The letter also requested that private networks should avoid interfering with other networks and must comply with Electro-Magnetic Field (EMF) standards, customer verification requirements and all security standards. Additionally, it said they should also be subject to valid interception laws and comply with the same rollout obligations as telcos.
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