DSA: 6 GHz to Wi-Fi would contribute billions for Indian economy
November 8, 2024
The full allocation of the 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi delivers the highest economic impact for India and enables the development of innovative products and services, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) announced at the 4th Indian Spectrum Management Conference.
The economic value for allocating the full 6 GHz for unlicenced use would amount to approximately $4,030 billion. This includes $3,544 billion in GDP contributions, $329 billion in consumer surplus, and $158 billion in producer surplus between now and 2034.
“The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for India is currently considering different approaches to the 6 GHz band for licence-exempt use,” said DSA President Martha Suarez. “The findings provided by the Telecom Advisory Services demonstrate that a full allocation for Wi-Fi is the best option for boosting the Indian economy and driving the country’s digital transformation. Furthermore, Wi-Fi can coexist with the satellites services that currently operate in the 6GHz band in India.”
A number of approaches have been proposed to the DoT, including the splitting of the 6 GHz band between Wi-Fi and International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT). In this scenario, Wi-Fi would be allocated the lower 500 MHz band, and IMT the upper 700 MHz band. The allocation of 1100 MHz to Wi-Fi, and 100 MHz to IMT has also been suggested. When comparing these alternatives, the full allocation to Wi-Fi would deliver $858 billion more than the second option, and $46 billion higher than the third towards the Indian economy. Limiting the allocation of Wi-Fi to just 500 MHz would mean a restriction of indoor Wi-Fi speeds by 50 per cent, while more than half of IoT devices would be limited in their indoor and outdoor access. 81.82% of augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) devices used in indoor environments would also be limited in terms of their ability to operate.
“Innovative technologies such as Wi-Fi 6e and 7, in the 6 GHz band, are critical to enhance government programs such as Digital India and Make in India” said President of the Itu-Apt Foundation of India, Bharat Bhatia. He urged India’s Minister of Communications to urgently license the lower 6 GHz band while studies on the upper band are ongoing.
“There’s one further consideration to be made,” said President of the Telecom Advisory Services, Dr Raul Katz. “Assuming that the World Radio Conference decides to allocate the upper 6 GHz to IMT during WRC-27, then equipment and devices for wideband mobile networks will need to be designed, tested and deployed, and it would take another two years to reach a useful deployment of service. On the other hand, Wi-Fi technology is already commonplace and can be deployed immediately with no additional requirements.”