T. V. Ramachandran, President, Broadband India Forum
While India is forging ahead on many digital fronts, it seems to be disappointingly sliding back in a vital area of 5G, use case deployment – that of the use of direct spectrum private 5G which is quite essential to accelerate the digitalisation in several critical sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, logistics and transportation, agriculture, etc. Global economies are racing ahead with private 5G industrial deployments, but India remains caught up in a web of confusion and policy indecision. The world’s largest democracy – renowned for leapfrogging with UPI and Aadhaar – is now on the verge of missing the next digital revolution. While the private 5G opportunity has been acknowledged, the urgency to act remains muffled. Is India nurturing a transformational idea, or or has it moved past it into irrelevance?
The table below doesn’t merely highlight a technology gap. It captures a policy inertia that risks turning some of India’s digital ambitions into a waiting room of missed opportunities. While Germany launched industrial spectrum allocation in 2019, and China has now surpassed 40,000 deployments spanning over 80 out of its 97 national economic categories (Frost & Sullivan, 2025). In India, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has most surprisingly opted for a second round of spectrum demand survey, floated on June 30, 2025, inviting interest from enterprises and integrators.
One is much intrigued by the latest policy measure. And, this is not the first such mis-step. A similar attempt in 2022 yielded no decisive forward movement. The logic behind repeating the process is puzzling. In essence, private 5G demand cannot be aggregated meaningfully because its utility is not tied to cumulative use but to highly specific, site-bound operations – mines, ports, refineries, airports, industrial parks, etc. Each deployment is driven by localised physics, interference thresholds, and latency requirements. There is no economic merit in surveying what is already evident: large critical infrastructure entities will always have site-specific needs that do not scale uniformly across the country. In any case, many leading economies have gone ahead since 2019, after conducting studies have shown that it is wasteful to try and reinvent the wheel.
Globally, the policy clarity and administrative will to enable private 5G has been decisive. The CBRS framework in the US introduced shared spectrum licensing that has catalysed innovation in utility grids and academic campuses. Japan and South Korea allocated dedicated mid-band spectrum for industrial use. China’s aggressive roll-out, supported by state policy, has embedded 5G across manufacturing, logistics and emergency response. In contrast, India’s posture remains tentative, delaying policy execution in favour of incremental consultation. This approach is not only impeding innovation but also job creation.
Adding to the confusion is the June 30, 2025 survey criterion, which pegs eligibility at enterprises with a Rs 1 billion net worth – a threshold that may exclude smaller but high-tech manufacturing and automation firms, further limiting participation. This inadvertently reinforces telco dependence, even though private 5G’s true value lies in decentralised ownership and operation.
At the Broadband India Forum (BIF) Wi-Fi Day event on June 24, 2025, Union Communications Minister 
Jyotiraditya Scindia rightly stated that India must offer a “bouquet of technologies” to its customers and find out 5G use cases. The ability to run isolated, secure, high-performance networks on site is not a luxury for industries – it is becoming a necessity, especially for automation, predictive maintenance, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based control systems.
Yet, India’s private 5G testbeds remain starved of actual spectrum. While Germany allocates 100 MHz in the 3.7-3.8 GHz band, and South Korea supports mmWave campus networks, India continues to treat non-public networks as an experimental exercise. The irony is glaring, especially when India was hailed globally for the fastest 5G roll-out post-2022 auctions for public networks. Operators complain of lack of 5G use cases when private 5G is available as a shining example of a viable use case.
This model contrasts with broader public 5G aims. Private micro-networks empower local institutions – from schools to agro clusters – without relying on public operators. They reinforce digital inclusion, but with performance, reliability and data sovereignty that public networks cannot guarantee at the village level. The way forward could be:
- Stop repeated assessments and start allocations: A designated 100 MHz in the mid-band (say 3.7-3.8 GHz) or 400 MHz in mmWave can be earmarked for enterprise licensing without further delay.
- Administrative allocation, not auctions: Private 5G is for internal use, not resale. Hence, it demands non-auctioned, low-cost, site-specific licensing – a practice followed by all advanced economies.
- Open up to SI-led models, not just enterprises: System integrators (SIs), like tech firms or infra players, often operate across multiple client campuses. Restricting spectrum only to end-user enterprises limits scale and innovation.
- Ensure interministerial coordination: The Ministries of industry, urban development, railways, ports, and power must converge with DoT to streamline demand aggregation, as many mission-critical deployments fall outside traditional telecom purview.
- Shift narrative from pilot to policy: Every test bed that works today is not a success unless it is replicable under policy backing. Proof of concept without proof of policy is academic.
India’s market for private 5G, though under-realised, is sizeable. Estimates from NASSCOM and STL Tech suggest that India could see over 2,000 industrial private 5G networks by 2030, with a market value exceeding $2.5-3 billion annually, especially in the manufacturing, logistics, ports, and energy sectors. This is a conservative estimate – dependent entirely on regulatory clarity.
It is also crucial to remember that private 5G is not about critical communications like public safety radios or NDRF devices. While it can support those, its primary application remains industrial automation – driving smart logistics, remote mining, digital manufacturing, and next-gen warehousing. These use cases are not future possibilities – they are present-day operational demands in every competitive economy.
Even FirstNet in the US, originally an LTE-based critical communication network provider, is now exploring 5G pathways for critical communication but keeping it a separate ecosystem from industrial 5G. India, by continuously confusing the two, is risking delaying both tracks.
Meanwhile, China has implemented 5G-Advanced in its Liangbei mining complex, already realising a 30 per cent performance jump over standard 5G benchmarks. South Korea’s Busan smart port runs entirely on private 5G, coordinating autonomous cranes, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and dock logistics. Europe’s automotive clusters in Stuttgart operate real-time robotic arms via dedicated private spectrum. These are not demos. These are live networks powering economic engines.
And where is India? Still surveying spectrum demand – for the second time in three years.
The message to policymakers is simple. Private 5G is an industrial infrastructure necessity. Each year of delay is a year of lost competitiveness in manufacturing, logistics and mining.
However, all is not lost. The test beds exist. The ecosystem is maturing. The policy intent is visible. If translated into action, India can not only catch up but lead – just as it did in digital payments and fintech. The question is whether we will act on time.
In India, private 5G is not a catalyst waiting to be discovered. It is a catalyst totally entangled in implementation inertia and vested interests.
(The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author)
Research inputs by Neha Hathiari
