Reliance Jio, the leading telecom operator in India, in its counter comments to the consultation paper titled, "Digital Transformation through 5G Ecosystem", said the 6 GHz spectrum is important for introducing 6G in India. Further, the telco has said that the 6 GHz spectrum is important for providing ubiquitous 5G coverage in India.
The telco has suggested that the government should not delicense the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi services. The tech companies have voiced their opinion to delicense the 6 GHz spectrum so that it can be used for providing Wi-Fi services throughout the country. However, Jio along with GSM Association have said multiple times now that the 6 GHz spectrum is important for offering 5G.
The current available bandwidth in the mid-band is not enough to deliver blanket 5G coverage in India. Thus, the 6 GHz spectrum will play a vital role here.
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Jio said, "As 6 GHz band is the only mid-band spectrum available for IMT services, full 6 GHz (1200 MHz i.e. 5925-7125 MHz) band should be earmarked for IMT so that around 300 MHz to 400 MHz is available to each of the TSP for growth of 5G and introduction of 6G services."
Licensing Process Should be Followed for Allocating Spectrum to Anyone and Everyone, Suggests Jio
Jio has said that the parties that want to get access to the spectrum without a license just don't want to go through the licensing process and also don't want to pay the market price of the spectrum.
"Delicensing of spectrum not only create a cost arbitrage between the operator providing services on licensed spectrum and other operators but will also leads to huge loss to exchequer," said Jio.
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Jio event mentioned that the countries that have delicensed the 6 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi services are now facing difficulty in reversing their decision when a large part of the band (i.e. 6.425 GHz to 7.25 GHz) is being considered for IMT in WRC-23. There is already spectrum that is delicensed and not utilised yet in India. Firstly, that utilisation of that should happen and then further delicensing of the spectrum should be talked about.
Delicensing of the V and the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi services is not justified, said Jio, as it would be directly competing with 5G and would be a substitutable broadband service.
"In view of the above, we reiterate our submissions that we do not agree with the need for permitting license exempt operations in these bands," Jio concluded.
