
PWD appoints nodal officer to fast-track strengthening broadband services in Delhi
Public Works Department
(PWD) to coordinate with the
State Broadband Committee
.
The committee, functioning under the Ministry of Communication, addresses challenges faced by
telecom service providers
in setting up towers and laying optical fiber cables in urban areas.
This move comes after a meeting held last year where central authorities asked departments like the PWD to designate officials responsible for handling connectivity-related clearances.
"The newly appointed nodal officer will focus on clearing pending permissions related to Right of Way (RoW) - a key requirement for laying underground optical fiber and erecting telecom towers," officials said.
To further streamline infrastructure development, the committee has directed the Urban Development Department to ensure that all agencies planning excavation work inform the relevant authorities beforehand. This measure aims to minimize disruption and inconvenience to the public, officials said further.
The Delhi government has also directed telecom operators to expedite the rollout of 5G services, particularly in central parts of the city, including the New Delhi area. This directive aligns with the national goal of achieving comprehensive 5G coverage across major urban centers.
The efforts are likely improve digital connectivity in the capital and help meet the growing demand for high-speed internet and advanced mobile services.

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Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Battle for 'captive' may intensify again: Telcos vs tech giants over hugely monetisable use case for 5G spectrum
A renewed attempt by the telecom department to ascertain demand for direct allocation of spectrum for setting up private captive 5G networks is set to ignite a fresh battle among technology and telecom companies, say industry executives. The fundamental disagreement revolves around control and making profits from private 5G spectrum and services, long touted as the most significant monetisable use case for 5G, executives said. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Others Cybersecurity healthcare Digital Marketing Data Analytics Degree Finance Project Management PGDM MBA Leadership Public Policy Technology Product Management others Data Science Healthcare MCA Data Science Management Operations Management Artificial Intelligence CXO Design Thinking Skills you'll gain: Duration: 7 Months S P Jain Institute of Management and Research CERT-SPJIMR Exec Cert Prog in AI for Biz India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 16 Weeks Indian School of Business CERT-ISB Transforming HR with Analytics & AI India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 28 Weeks MICA CERT-MICA SBMPR Async India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 9 months IIM Lucknow SEPO - IIML CHRO India Starts on undefined Get Details "Telcos will seek to maintain their market dominance and aim to monetise their 5G investments, while enterprises will seek direct control for operational efficiency, security, and innovation tailored to their specific use cases," an industry executive said. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) recently ordered a fresh study-three years after an initial one-to assess the demand potential for setting up private networks through spectrum given directly by DoT to companies. The first attempt saw interest from more than 20 companies including Infosys , Capgemini, GMR, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Communications , Tata Power , and Tejas Networks . However, the DoT later concluded that the device ecosystem was not yet ready to support the use case. Like in 2022, telcos this time too are opposing any move to directly allocate 5G spectrum, demanding the Centre to mandate setting up private networks by telcos themselves, or by leasing spectrum from them. Corporations and tech system integrators, on the other hand, have been seeking direct spectrum allocation . Live Events Telcos and tech biggies & cos at loggerheads over hugely monetisable use case for 5G spectrum "During the time of spectrum auction, the quantum of spectrum and its valuation were benchmarked, keeping in mind that the licensed access service providers of networks will be meeting the demands of private 5G spectrum by enterprises," said Lt. Gen S.P Kocchar, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents private telcos Bharti Airtel , Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea . Kocchar added that direct allocation of spectrum to enterprises will result in spectrum fragmentation and allow back-door entry to enterprises in providing commercial telecom services without regulatory or financial compliances. Tech companies are terming DoT's latest move as yet another delaying tactic to protect spectrum holdings of telcos, while telcos say they have adequate 4G/5G spectrum to meet any requirement of enterprises. Broadband India Forum, which counts tech firms like Facebook, Google, Cisco, Amazon, Tata Consultancy Services , Microsoft, and Intel as its members, said there are enough international precedents where spectrum leasing or direct licencing of spectrum for private networks is permitted, citing models in the US, Finland, Australia, and Denmark. It added other nations including China, Germany, and the UK have thousands of private networks, with India lagging far behind. critical applications BIF president TV Ramachandran said there is clearly a lot of demand from the industry for private 5G, not for making calls, but for critical applications like industrial automation , healthcare services, and logistics solutions. "These applications require very high levels of non-failure requirements and reliability, and need low latency and strong security, which enterprises believe are best ensured through dedicated networks or direct control," Ramachandran told ET. Private networks, he said, will require very small allocation of spectrum, often just around 100 MHz, within a limited campus for internal use, which would not impact public networks. Digital services provider Tata Communications, which has developed capabilities to deploy private 5G networks for enterprises, said adoption of the 5G captive network use case would have been accelerated had the government allowed direct allocation in 2022 itself. "Originally for private 5G to take off, we had advocated that enterprises should be given spectrum privately for limited use for their areas and that would have accelerated some people to try it out," Amur Lakshminarayanan, CEO, Tata Communications told ET. He added that Tata Communications now has to approach another company-likely a telco-which already holds spectrum for trials with enterprises, as a stopgap solution. "The ecosystem has to develop and the government has to make sure that it becomes affordable for people to implement private 5G, which is distinct from public 5G which mobile operators are deploying on a large scale," Lakshminarayanan said. However, DoT has now highlighted that during recent analysis, it was observed that the device ecosystem for captive private networks is mostly available in the IMT band, which is used for mobile telephony services, and that 5G technology has also considerably advanced with varied use cases. "Also, system integrators are keenly interested in establishing CNPN based networks," it said, as the rationale for the fresh demand study.


Economic Times
3 hours ago
- Economic Times
Battle for 'captive' may intensify again: Telcos vs tech giants over hugely monetisable use case for 5G spectrum
A renewed attempt by the telecom department to ascertain demand for direct allocation of spectrum for setting up private captive 5G networks is set to ignite a fresh battle among technology and telecom companies, say industry fundamental disagreement revolves around control and making profits from private 5G spectrum and services, long touted as the most significant monetisable use case for 5G, executives said."Telcos will seek to maintain their market dominance and aim to monetise their 5G investments, while enterprises will seek direct control for operational efficiency, security, and innovation tailored to their specific use cases," an industry executive said. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) recently ordered a fresh study-three years after an initial one-to assess the demand potential for setting up private networks through spectrum given directly by DoT to companies. The first attempt saw interest from more than 20 companies including Infosys, Capgemini, GMR, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Communications, Tata Power, and Tejas Networks. However, the DoT later concluded that the device ecosystem was not yet ready to support the use case. Like in 2022, telcos this time too are opposing any move to directly allocate 5G spectrum, demanding the Centre to mandate setting up private networks by telcos themselves, or by leasing spectrum from them. Corporations and tech system integrators, on the other hand, have been seeking direct spectrum allocation. "During the time of spectrum auction, the quantum of spectrum and its valuation were benchmarked, keeping in mind that the licensed access service providers of networks will be meeting the demands of private 5G spectrum by enterprises," said Lt. Gen S.P Kocchar, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents private telcos Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea. Kocchar added that direct allocation of spectrum to enterprises will result in spectrum fragmentation and allow back-door entry to enterprises in providing commercial telecom services without regulatory or financial companies are terming DoT's latest move as yet another delaying tactic to protect spectrum holdings of telcos, while telcos say they have adequate 4G/5G spectrum to meet any requirement of enterprises. Broadband India Forum, which counts tech firms like Facebook, Google, Cisco, Amazon, Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft, and Intel as its members, said there are enough international precedents where spectrum leasing or direct licencing of spectrum for private networks is permitted, citing models in the US, Finland, Australia, and Denmark. It added other nations including China, Germany, and the UK have thousands of private networks, with India lagging far behind. critical applications BIF president TV Ramachandran said there is clearly a lot of demand from the industry for private 5G, not for making calls, but for critical applications like industrial automation, healthcare services, and logistics solutions. "These applications require very high levels of non-failure requirements and reliability, and need low latency and strong security, which enterprises believe are best ensured through dedicated networks or direct control," Ramachandran told networks, he said, will require very small allocation of spectrum, often just around 100 MHz, within a limited campus for internal use, which would not impact public networks. Digital services provider Tata Communications, which has developed capabilities to deploy private 5G networks for enterprises, said adoption of the 5G captive network use case would have been accelerated had the government allowed direct allocation in 2022 itself. "Originally for private 5G to take off, we had advocated that enterprises should be given spectrum privately for limited use for their areas and that would have accelerated some people to try it out," Amur Lakshminarayanan, CEO, Tata Communications told added that Tata Communications now has to approach another company-likely a telco-which already holds spectrum for trials with enterprises, as a stopgap solution. "The ecosystem has to develop and the government has to make sure that it becomes affordable for people to implement private 5G, which is distinct from public 5G which mobile operators are deploying on a large scale," Lakshminarayanan DoT has now highlighted that during recent analysis, it was observed that the device ecosystem for captive private networks is mostly available in the IMT band, which is used for mobile telephony services, and that 5G technology has also considerably advanced with varied use cases. "Also, system integrators are keenly interested in establishing CNPN based networks," it said, as the rationale for the fresh demand study.


Time of India
12 hours ago
- Time of India
Digital push: BSNL, NRL sign pact; will launch India's first 5G CNPN in refinery sector
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