The Indian telecom operators and private internet companies have been in a spat over the use of the 6 GHz spectrum. The Indian government has yet to take a call on how the bandwidth in this frequency will be used. The government is listening to the argument from both sides and will take a final call based on the best use of the 6 GHz spectrum. But the work is still left.
Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) told ET that the department is aware of the need for 6 GHz band for both Wi-Fi and mobile services. Thus, it is working with all the stakeholders to find the best solution.
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The private telcos want the government to use the 6 GHz spectrum for mobility. They believe that it is important for the deployment of 5G and 6G in the future. However, private internet companies believe that the 6 GHz band should be free from licensing. Hence, it should be available for Wi-Fi connectivity use case.
The industry bodies including COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) and GSMA have requested the government several times that they need the 6 GHz spectrum's bandwidth for expansion of 5G in India and for deploying 6G in the future. India is taking the development of 6G very seriously and wants to be one of the leading countries in the deployment. To that extent, it will be interesting to see what the government will decide here.
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Whatever is decided, it will affect the consumers at the end of the day. The availability of the 6 GHz band would mean that they would finally be able to use the Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 routers. At present, consumers own a Wi-Fi 6E router, but they can't really use it in India as the 6 GHz band is not available for connectivity.
