Telecom industry body COAI has warned the telecom sector that the cancellation of spectrum licenses in the 6 Ghz band will hinder the rollout of 5G and 6G services in the country.
The Association of Cellular Operators of India (whose members include Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, etc.) in a letter dated 10 August to Apurva Chandra, Ministry of Telecom, asked the Ministry of Telecom to include the 6 GHz spectrum in the auction and support its use globally. distribution in mobile telecommunications.
The 6 GHz band is the only additional contiguous spectrum available in the IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications) mid-band, in addition to the spectrum already auctioned, COAI said.
“As such, this is very important for the future development of 5G and beyond, including India’s roadmap for the rollout of 6G. This spectrum will be critical as India develops its Bharat 6G action plan. De-licensing this important block of spectrum will Seriously hampering the development of 6G in India.” Deploying 5G+ and 6G in India”, SP Kochhar, Director General of COAI, said in the letter.
The industry body has warned the ministry that focusing on demand from Wifi service providers to make the 6 GHz band free will result in a loss of government revenue.
“We understand that some industry bodies have mediated with you to request the cancellation of the license to promote Wifi services in the country in this frequency band. We believe that this spectrum can be used more efficiently for the benefit of the country and citizens by enhancing 5G services in India,” Kochhar said.
In 2018, the DoT de-licensed or made free 600 megahertz of spectrum in the 5 GHz band.
In the absence of device ecosystem support, the unlicensed 255 MHz of the 600 Mhz spectrum is completely unutilized, COAI said.
“We believe that underutilizing the available spectrum and asking for more spectrum will result in a waste of this scarce and valuable resource,” Kochhar said.
According to the industry body’s letter, Wifi’s maximum speed will remain unchanged at 9.6 GB per second on both the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands, which will not bring any real added value to the end consumer.
The director-general of COAI said that any license cancellation of the 6 GHz or part of the band would reduce the 5G spectrum, thereby limiting the growth of 5G and 6G, which will be the main driver of broadband in the country.
“For example, the recent mid-band (C-band) spectrum auction in India for 2022 was sold at Rs 3.17 crore per MHz. This clearly shows the huge potential impact of the 1200 MHz licensing or de-licensing decision. (6 GHz band) spectrum handed over Government finances,” Kocchar said.
COAI has asked the DoT and the Wireless Planning and Coordination Department (WPC) to continue to support the upper part of the 6 GHz band, which is the frequency range between 6425-7125 MHz, for the Mobile Telecommunications Conference of the World Radiocommunication Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Organization Meeting Preparatory Group 2023.
The meeting, organized by the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency, aims to decide on spectrum use in various frequency bands.
The sixth meeting of the APG started on Monday and will continue until August 19.
“DoT please take further decisions on the inclusion of the lower part of the frequency band (i.e. 5925-6425 MHz) for IMT. The above decision will go a long way towards identifying the critical spectrum required for 5G/IMT technology and will clear the way for auctioning this spectrum, ’ said Kochhar.
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