Government should earmark the entire spectrum available in the medium frequency range of 6 gigahertz band for mobile telecons so as to enable them to deliver high-speed data services in the range of 50-100 mbps, telecom industry body COAI said in a letter to the Department of Telecom.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), whose members include Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea, in the letter to telecom secretary K Rajaraman has said that mobile service providers need 2 megahertz frequencies in the medium band spectrum to enhance user experience and entire 1200 megahertz of frequencies available in 6 Ghz band should be earmark for them.
COAI Director General SP Kochhar said :
“We recommend that the most optimal allocation for the country in the 6GHz band is to identify the entire 5925-7125 MHz i.e., 1200MHz spectrum for IMT applications as this would maximize the economic and societal benefits for achieving the national target of 1 trillion digital economy,”.
At present, the 6 Ghz band is earmark for mobile, fix wireless (wifi) and fix satellite services.
SP Kochhar said :
“Licensed 6 GHz is ideal for commercial success and deployment of 5G NR, 5.5 G, and 6G in the future. An additional 2 GHz of mid-band spectrum would be required to meet the IMT-2020 user-experienced data rates of 100 Mbit per sec on the downlink and 50 Mbit per second on the uplink in cities with a high density of population as per GSMA,”.
According to the letter, the government is likely to vacate spectrum from broadcasters or satellite users in C band (3670-4000 Ghz) for 5G and 6G use.
COAI Director General said :
“However, even this spectrum from C band will not be enough to reach the required 2GHz spectrum for IMT in mid-band. It is essential that 1200 MHz available in 6GHz is allocated for mobile communications in India to get this critical 2GHz spectrum in mid-band,”.
He said that shortage of 6 GHz spectrum would compel TSPs to densify networks to meet 5G performance requirements which will lead to 60% higher annual costs.
SP Kochhar said :
“Without densification, 5G download speeds would be reduced to 50 per cent if less spectrum is allocated in the 6 GHz band,”.
At present telecom operators are using frequency in the spectrum bands of 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 3300 Mhz and 26 Ghz band for 5G services.
