Telecom operators, represented by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), have reiterated their stance that the spectrum in the 6 GHz band should be allotted for mobile services and not reserved for Wi-Fi.
In a letter dated August 10 to newly-appointed telecom secretary Apurva Chandra, COAI said the spectrum will be crucial as India firms up action plan for Bharat 6G and delicensing the spectrum will seriously hamper the deployment of 5G and 6G services in the country.
The letter from COAI to the DoT secretary comes amid ongoing meeting of the APT Conference Preparatory Group for WRC-23 (World Radiocommunication Conference) in Brisbane, wherein a delegation from DoT is participating. One of the discussion items is on the 6 GHz band, on which a final decision will be taken at WRC-23 in December in Dubai.
COAI has urged DoT to back the argument of telcos in the meeting. The 6 GHz band that includes the spectrum in the range of 5.9-7.1 GHz has the potential to carry high speed data and is globally used for offering Wi-Fi services.
“6 GHz band is the only additional contiguous spectrum available in Mid-Band for IMT (international mobile telecommunications) beyond what has already been put up in auction. Hence it is important for future growth of 5G and beyond technologies including the roadmap for 6G introduction in India,” said SP Kochhar, director general of COAI.
According to Kochhar, Wi-Fi services in India already have sufficient spectrum in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands (totaling 688 MHz) to meet the demand for Wi-Fi access in the 2025-2030 period.
Further, COAI argued that the spectrum of more than 600 MHz was delicensed by DoT in the 5 GHz band in 2018 and out of the 600 MHz, 255 MHz is completely unutilised in absence of device ecosystem support.
In counter, Broadband India Forum (BIF) that represents technology firms like Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon wants the government to either delicence the complete spectrum available in the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi or atleast give part of the spectrum.
BIF said world-over there’s no such reservation of spectrum in this band for mobile services, and any such move would affect the growth of public Wi-Fi systems in the country.
“Given that public Wi-Fi is the way to accelerate broadband penetration across the country, liberalisation of public Wi-Fi through the PM-WANI scheme is one of the important steps to help achieve the government of India’s vision of Digital India and to attain the objectives of providing ‘Broadband for all’,” said Aruna Sundararajan, chairperson of BIF.
COAI said India is at a different level of technological progress compared to the other countries mentioned. It would not be in the best interest of the nation to follow global examples blindly without understanding the implications for India in the on-ground scenario.
“The allocation of the 6 GHz band must consider the unique challenges of rural connectivity, affordability and digital literacy in India. India’s significantly higher population density compared to these nations like the USA, Brazil and Canada necessitates spectrum loading to the tune of 96%,” Kochhar said.“The average population served by each antenna in India is roughly 8x of these countries, thus requiring almost 4-5 MHz of spectrum/person, a stark difference from the needs in the USA, Brazil or Canada,” Kochhar added.
