The telecom industry, which had collectively advocated for the entire 6 GHz band to be allocated for 5G services, is now reportedly divided over the government’s decision to delicence the lower portion of the band for Wi-Fi use. Reliance Jio has reportedly shifted its stance and joined the technology industry in supporting higher power limits for Wi-Fi devices that would operate under the delicensed 6 GHz spectrum. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi), however, are urging the government to hold further consultations and establish a committee before finalising any decision on spectrum delicensing.
Delicensing is expected to facilitate the rollout of next-generation technologies such as Wi-Fi 6E and 7 in India and is considered a significant win for technology firms. It has been a longstanding demand of the tech industry to accommodate growing bandwidth requirements at cost-effective rates.
While Jio initially opposed the delicensing of the 6 GHz band, it has now opted not to resist the move. The company aims to utilise the spectrum for fixed wireless access (FWA) services using its in-house developed equipment, an advantage that Airtel and Vi currently lack. In recent months, Jio had been deploying unlicensed band radio (UBR) equipment to deliver 5G FWA services via the Wi-Fi spectrum. If the government increases the power limits for 6 GHz, the same spectrum could support both FWA and Wi-Fi applications.
The tech sector is pushing for the permitted power levels for Wi-Fi devices in the 6 GHz band to be aligned with global benchmarks to ensure optimal performance and affordability. The Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) current proposal, maximum power spectral density (PSD) of -5 dBm/MHz and a total transmit power of 14 dBm, may constrain the range and throughput of very low power devices. The industry is requesting an increase to 1 dBm/MHz for very low power indoor and outdoor devices, stating that failure to raise the limit would impair performance in advanced Wi-Fi applications such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR), which require high data rates and low latency.It has been cautioned that without a power increase, the full potential of the 6 GHz band may remain untapped. It is noted that the band can deliver data speeds up to 9.6 Gbps, compared to 1.3 Gbps in the 5 GHz band and 600 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band.
Further, globally, over 84 countries, including the US, UK, and South Korea, have already delicensed the 6 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi services. In India, Wi-Fi is currently provided using the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, which are now congested and limited in speed and capacity for data-intensive applications such as online gaming, the internet of things (IoT), and various forms of extended reality.
