Why India Must Delicense The 6 GHz Band
India risks significant losses in 5G monetization, government revenue, 6G progress, manufacturing opportunities, and overall national potential without 6 GHz spectrum allocation for Wi-Fi
Recently, my YouTube video, “5G Monetization: Understanding the Wi-Fi Bottleneck,” sparked some questions that deserve a detailed exploration beyond what a video can offer. To provide a deeper understanding and to respond to these thoroughly, I’ve compiled this article, complete with supporting notes and references. Consider this piece an essential companion to my video, offering a fuller picture with the necessary context and explanations.
Operators will be unable to monetize 5G technology
The diagram below illustrates this issue. Presently, existing Wi-Fi networks lack the capability to effectively extend the full throughput of 5G networks to consumers' homes (Refer to Annexure 1 below for a detailed explanation). This limitation renders the substantial capacity of 5G networks underutilized and redundant.
Indian Government stands to face revenue losses from unsold spectrum
The chart below captures the valuation of the unsold spectrum with the government. These frequency bands are critical for the roll-out of 5G FWA services, which promise to revolutionize the telecom landscape for Indian operators, especially in the context. of the country's limited fixed-line broadband infrastructure. However, the current limitations in Wi-Fi spectrum capacity, coupled with the underutilization of their recently acquired 5G spectrum, may dissuade operators from participating in future bids for these bands. This hesitancy is poised to lead to a significant revenue deficit for the government, potentially amounting to approximately Rs 2 Lakh Crore, by forgoing the potential auction income from these key bands below, and prospective 6G bands.
Indian Government’s 6G development plans will suffer
On 1st Aug 2023, India submitted to the 6th APT Conference (refer to annexure 3 for the Indian recent submission in APT) a list of frequencies for future studies for inclusion as candidate bands for IMT (6G technologies). Most 6G frequencies will be high-band spectrum with limited indoor penetration, and therefore robust Wi-Fi capabilities are essential. Without them, operators cannot harness the potential of these frequencies, thus thwarting India's progress towards becoming a frontrunner in 6G technology advancement.
Indian Government loses out on a big manufacturing opportunity
By not delicensing the 6 GHz band, the Indian Government risks missing a significant manufacturing opportunity. As most global economies have delicensed the entire 6 GHz band or a portion of it, and with only 700 MHz currently being considered for IMT deployment—even China isn't pursuing full IMT usage in the 6 GHz band— India's stance on reserving the entire band for IMT could lead to international isolation in this policy area.
Therefore, opening the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi is crucial for India’s competitiveness in the global market, as without access to this spectrum, Indian manufacturers may lack the incentive to develop products that are viable for both domestic and international sales, missing out on economies of scale. This hampers India’s positioning as a global manufacturing hub, despite the government’s attractive incentives like Production Linked Incentives (PLIs). Restricted competition in the export market due to the absence of the 6GHz band could lead to reduced investments, fewer job opportunities, and a sluggish digital economy growth, compounded by the increased cost of devices.
India as a nation will incur a high opportunity loss
Currently, the 6 GHz band is extensively utilized by the Department of Space and telecom operators, as shown in the accompanying figure.
Critical services include VSAT terminals that support bank ATMs and small businesses in remote areas, as well as operators' microwave backhaul spectrum. IMT services cannot operate alongside these incumbent services without not getting impacted by interference (refer to Annexure 2) and decommissioning these existing services to make way for IMT would be a time-intensive process. However, Wi-Fi operates at extremely low power and therefore can coexist with these legacy services. By not adopting Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band, India, and its stakeholders, particularly consumers, stand to miss out on harnessing this band's full potential, leading to significant opportunity costs.
Annexure 1 – The Imperative for More Spectrum in Wi-Fi
Adequate spectrum allocation is essential for Wi-Fi access points to deliver higher speeds. Wi-Fi networks need continuous blocks of spectrum—20, 40, 80, or 160 MHz—to function optimally and provide high-speed connectivity. A scarcity of spectrum raises the probability of interference and reduces the chance of securing an interference-free block, leading to network congestion.
Additionally, as the distance from the access point grows, throughput proportionately decreases due to signal degradation, a problem exacerbated at higher frequencies by devices' smaller receiver apertures. This reduction in signal strength means devices are unable to harness the Wi-Fi signal's full capacity, thus the theoretical maximum speeds of Wi-Fi networks do not translate into the actual speeds end-users receive. This inefficiency is exacerbated when the overall available spectrum is limited, as the lack of large, interference-free blocks of spectrum reduces total throughput and network efficiency. Such a constrained network becomes a critical bottleneck in fully realizing the speed and latency benefits of 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) for end-users. Please refer to the diagram below for an explanation.
Reference - https://semfionetworks.com/blog/free-space-path-loss-diagrams/
Annexure 2 – Why IMT can’t coexist with legacy services
Reason 1 - Out of the 1200 MHz available, a significant portion, specifically 675 MHz (56%), is allocated for existing MWB (Microwave Backbone Links) and Point-to-Point connections. These MWBs serve as the backbone for the Indian telecom operators, facilitating long-distance cellular traffic backhaul. Typically, each link spans 60 to 70 Km, and multiple such hops are required to carry traffic from one point to the other as depicted below.
Hence, it is evident that deploying IMT services in this band poses a formidable challenge. This challenge stems from the interference between existing services and the distinct band structure of IMT services, which relies on Time Division Duplexing (TDD). In TDD, both transmission and reception share the same spectrum block, heightening the risk of interference. This is described pictorially below in the following diagram.
Therefore, to pave the way for potential IMT services in the future, it becomes imperative for the Government of India (GOI) to contemplate the reallocation of existing services to alternative bands. Unless that is done, IMT services simply CAN NOT function in this band without the need for huge geographical separation as explained in the sharing studies appended below.
Reason 2 - The entire band is extensively utilized by geostationary satellites, serving a wide range of government and commercial purposes. These satellite connections play a vital role in transmitting signals from Earth to space. As shown below.
The side lobes of signals emanating from the earth stations will spill over into the IMT band causing interference. Also, there is a likelihood of stray signals from IMT equipment interfering with the receivers of the GSO satellites hanging up in the sky.
Sharing Study References and Links
1. ITU-R CPM23
2. EUROPE
CEPT Brief for WRC-23: https:- //www.cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/cpg/page/cept-briefs- and-ecps-for-wrc-23
Link to Specific CEPT Brief for AI 1.2:- https://cept.org/Documents/cpg/80139/cpg-23-060-annex-iv-02r1_cept
Annexure 3– Indian Government’s 6GHz Spectrum Proposals
Please note that India has not made any submission on AI 1.2 which is on the identification of the upper 6GHz band to be identified for Region 3. Also, there is no PACP (Common proposal) from Region 3 on the identification of this band from Region 3. So, the conclusion is that neither is there any common APAC proposal to which India is a signatory nor has it submitted any country proposal for identification of the 6GHz for IMT. The proposal above is for AI 10 which is for the identification of new spectrum bands for IMT -2030 (6G) which is for bands in and above the 7GHz band as indicated above.