The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has turned down the proposal to have telcos deploy low power transmission for offering 5G in the 26 GHz band. Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had taken the proposal to ITU, in a bid to safeguard the interest of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). DoT claimed that high power transmission would interfere with satellite-based communications of India’s space agency.
The news will be welcomed by telcos as DoT’s proposition would have drastically increased the cost of rolling out 5G services. As per industry estimates, telcos have had to deploy 16 times more base stations. Normal 5G base station transmits at a power of 60 dbm in a 200 MHz block of spectrum. DoT’s proposal would have forced the operators to turn down the power to transmit at 37 dbm.
