NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Wednesday invited enterprises to study the demand for direct assignment of spectrum to set up captive non-public networks (CNPN). The enterprises, which have a net worth of more than Rs 100 crore , and are willing to set up captive non-public networks by obtaining spectrum directly from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are invited to participate in the exercise.
“Captive Non-Public Network can play a key role in developing industries by providing secure, ultra-reliable, low latency and high throughput communication using advanced technologies,” said the government in a statement.
The government issued the ‘Guidelines for Captive Non-Public Network (CNPN) license’ on 27 June 2022, with an aim to establish the legal framework for CNPNs. As per the guidelines, the enterprises seeking to establish CNPN may obtain spectrum on lease from Telecom Service Providers or directly from DoT. The guidelines also say that DoT will undertake demand studies for direct assignments of the spectrum to enterprises setting up CNPNs.
However, industry experts questioned the government’s move and said why such a demand study is required at all. Broadband India Forum, a group which has members like TCS, Cisco, Google and Amazon, said there was no such demand study for the public networks of 4G, 3G or 2G earlier.
“We welcome the announcement but sincerely wonder why such a demand study is required at all. There are 794 such private networks in the rest of the world and we need to be aligned with that. Pro-rata potential for India could be 150-200 private networks. There was no such demand study for the public networks of 4G, 3G or 2G.,” said T V Ramachandran, President of Broadband India Forum.