No town of Northeast is in the first phase of 5G rollout.

13 towns in 11 states have been identified for the first phase rollout which is expected to be rolled out on October 1.

The Centre has asked states to finalise modalities for use of government infrastructure/ street furniture, common power consumption bill and use State of Right of Way portal to facilitate use of street furniture approval for 5G rollout.

GIS data of power stations, village habitations, village boundaries, electricity poles, bus stands and Optical Fibre Cable laid by state public sector undertakings are to be provided by states to Centre.

The rollout can happen when all the modalities are completed.

For roll out of 5G services, telecom service providers and infrastructure providers have to lay optical fibre cables and erect / use towers/ poles in the nook and corner of the country. The rollout of 5G services requires a large densification of mobile network which requires accessing street furniture for deploying 5G small cells, to be installed close to every 200 metres.

As per data provided on the National Broadband Mission portal, 1677 right of way applications have been approved out of 2359 applications recieved from Assam. 90 applications have been rejected.

In the case of Nagaland, all the 57 Right of Way applications have been approved. The Right of Way policy of Nagaland is partially aligned with IT Right of Way Rules, 2016.

In Mizoram, 586 Right of Way applications have been approved out of 772 applications and 48 applications have been rejected.

In Tripura, 11 Right of Way applications have been approved out of 46 applications while 4 applications have been rejected.

In Manipur, 781 Right of Way applications have been approved out of 809 while 4 applications have been rejected.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said last month the government expects 5G services to be rolled out by October 12.

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