Indian conglomerate Adani Group is facing scrutiny over its delayed 5G rollout from the Indian government.
Moneycontrol and a number of other Indian media outlets have reported this week that India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sent multiple notices to Adani Data Networks, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, over its failure to meet the minimum rollout obligations to launch 5G.
The publication stated that the company could even be forced to sell the 26 GHz band spectrum that it acquired during the 2022 auctions.
“The company has not formally communicated its decision to return the spectrum but has informed DoT officials that deploying captive private networks for its businesses across ports, airports, power generation, and logistics has not been deemed commercially viable," said a source to Moneycontrol.
No decision over a sale has been made, noted the source.
Adani Group spent close to $27 million on 400 MHz of spectrum in the 26 GHz band, with the ambition of using the spectrum to provide 5G private services.
At present, only Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have launched 5G services in India, doing so back in October 2022.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) said last year that it aims to launch 5G in March, following several delays and financial struggles.