6GHz delicensing: India needs to assume ‘statesman role' for 5G, 6G spectrum, says GSMA

Time of India

2 days ago

NEW DELHI: As Indian telecom carriers suffer a setback arising from the Centre's decision to delicense the lower
6GHz for Wi-Fi
, the telco association
GSMA
said India needs to take a 'statesman role' in framing a spectrum strategy for its
5G
expansion and sixth-generation (6G) technology development needs.
'We acknowledge India's suggestion to allocate (lower 6GHz for Wi-Fi). It is important to ensure that India takes a global position, and with the rapid growth of 5G in India, enough spectrum must be allocated. We encourage ensuring a firm and structured roadmap for mobile technology going forward,' Julian Gorman, head of Asia Pacific at GSMA, told ETTelecom in an interview.
The Central government has recently notified draft rules to delicense the lower 6GHz, between 5925-6425MHz, for Wi-Fi, dealing a significant blow to the country's incumbent telecom carriers that had been lobbying with the government to identify and auction airwaves in this entire mid-band to address a spectrum shortfall for expanding 5G services, and to meet the demands for 6G in the future.
The technology companies, represented by the Broadband India Forum (BIF), had urged the Ministry of Communications to reconsider its decision to auction the 6GHz band to telecom carriers, arguing that delays in delicensing these airwaves are causing an annual loss of ₹12.7 lakh crore to the government's exchequer.
The entire 6GHz band has 1,200MHz spectrum between 5925-7125MHz.
'As we are leading up to WRC-27 (World Radiocommunication Conference-2027) and for India to lead in 6G, it is important that the regulators take a global statesman role,' the top executive said.
Union telecom minister
Jyotiraditya Scindia
on Tuesday said that 6GHz-driven Wi-Fi technologies, including Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7, will fuel innovation in the country, adding that the benefits of broadband internet will also reach rural villages and hamlets.
'We have just delicensed 500 MHz in our 6 GHz spectrum, and this will roll out these new, next generation technologies like Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7, which will result in higher speeds, ultra-low-latency, and seamless capacity,' the union minister said. 'With this technology, offices will no longer remain the hub of innovation. Our homes, each individual home, each rural hamlet, will become the hub of innovation in the days to come.'
Over 84 countries, including the US, UK and South Korea, among others, have already delicensed the 6 GHz band for WiFi services.
In India, Wi-Fi is currently provided using the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, which, according to experts, suffer from congestion and low bandwidth challenges and cannot adequately support the rapidly scaling IoT and smart devices ecosystem. Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 can theoretically offer peak bandwidth speeds of up to 9.6Gbps, compared to 1.2Gbps provided by today's Wi-Fi technologies.
Gorman, however, said that the 6GHz-compliant device ecosystem is still evolving, adding that China has allocated this entire mid-band for mobile services. 'It's a strong ecosystem to be a part of,' he said.
According to GSMA, private networks are one of the major applications dependent on the 26GHz airwaves – commonly referred to as mmWave spectrum. 'Private networks are one of the fastest-growing areas of network deployment. So I think we'll start to see more and more development,' Gorman said.