The Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF) has written to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) reiterating its position that the C-band spectrum between 3700-4200 MHz range can not be divided between terrestrial 5G carriers and satellite services.
In the letter from IBDF secretary general Siddharth Jain to DoT, the former asked about information and views from a select group of broadcasters and teleport operators regarding the government’s proposal to move Indian broadcasting from the 3700-4200 MHz to 4000-4200 MHz. IBDF protested by stating that the low-noise blocks (LNBs) of all the receivers will get overloaded and weak satellite signals will get obliterated once the high-power 5G transmissions start to take place within the current C-band of 3700-4200 MHz. Many channels, including the ones using the GAT satellites such as GSAT-30, will be defunct if the broadcasters are to move to the 4000-4200 MHz band.
The government’s plan to offer 300 MHz in the current C-band will reportedly impact over 100 TV channels that use the 3800-4000 MHz frequency range. They also highlighted that the planned migration of over 60 channels to safe bands above 3800 MHz has come to nought due to a scarcity of capacity. The IBDF noted that the issues regarding the spectrum up to 3670 MHz have not yet been resolved. It also added that there had been instances of disturbances in the broadcast service due to interference from telecom signals which operate in the 3300-3679 MHz band.
