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New Delhi: Chipmakers like Qualcomm are pushing the Indian government to delicense a portion of the 6GHz spectrum band to support the latest Wi-Fi 7 technology. However, telecom operators are mounting a pushback seeking for the band to remain licensed and available for cellular connectivity . As a result, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has been putting off its decision on delicensing the band with telecom operators, broadband providers as well as the Indian Space Research Organsation ( ISRO ) caught in the tussle.
So, WiFi 7 enabled products are not being allowed to enter the market, with the PlayStation 5 Pro the most recent example. Advt To work around this, chipset makers like Qualcomm and MediaTek are pushing ahead with Wi-Fi 7 products in India. A top Qualcomm executive said that gear makers are currently working around the ban by not opting for 6GHz support in new routers.
Instead, they continue to support 2.5GHz and 5GHz bands which are combined to give a higher bandwidth . The 6GHz spectrum, which spans from 5925-7125MHz, is considered ideal for both 5G services and WiFi use due to its capability to deliver higher bandwidth.
Telcos fear that free use of the band for WiFi would eat into their revenue. Even ISRO has raised concerns about potential interference with its satellite operations if the band is used for cellular connectivity. “From a Wi-Fi perspective, the world would be great if everyone used 1200MHz in the 6GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi.
..We worked with every regulatory body to make sure the best comes out for that regulatory region,” said Rahul Patel, group general manager (connectivity), broadband and networking, Qualcomm Technologies.
Equipment makers believe that even without support of 6GHz, Wi-Fi 7 has an advantage over previous generation protocols as it can combine the 2.5GHz and 5GHz channels into one to deliver higher throughput and lower latency. Patel added the WiFi technology is being adopted increasingly by device makers.
“All four models of the iPhone 16 are Wi-Fi 7 enabled. Many of the premium-tier Android phones that launched this year and will launch this month will be Wi-Fi 7 enabled.” Advt However, the adoption remains fragmented across geographies as regulatory hurdles crop up in other regions too.
China, for instance, has not opened up its 6GHz band for indoor Wi-Fi use. “6GHz is not uniformly available in the same capability across the world. For example, in the United States, you have 1200MHz of spectrum available, while in the UK, only 500MHz is available.
In some parts of the world, there are only chunks of the spectrum. It depends on the regulatory body, and how they have already committed 6GHz for other use cases,” Patel said. Qualcomm’s Taiwanese rival MediaTek, on the other hand, believes it is only a matter of time before the government takes a decision on whether to delicense the band for free indoor use.
“From our point of view, the technology is very much readily available and we make sure the technologies are also being used, but I believe from a regulatory point of view, we have to just go with the flow and see what is happening. I think it’s just a matter of time,” said Finbarr Moynihan, vice president (corporate marketing), MediaTek. Along with Qualcomm, MediaTek too is pushing ahead with Wi-Fi 7 enabled devices, but both companies are seeing the deployments to vary depending on the regulations in each region.
“With the full range of 6GHz, you can of course get the peak broadband experience. But those licensing and bandwidth decisions are different all over the world, so the deployments are likely to be different all over the world,” Moynihan said. Patel added that chipsets are made in a modular fashion so that if original equipment makers (OEMs) are not deploying on the 6GHz, they don’t have to pay for it.
The executive said the company will continue to push the government to delicense at least a portion of the band, if not the entire 1200MHz. “With India, I think there will be a portion of 6GHz that will be licensed, and there will be a portion that will be unlicensed, but it’s still a debate within the government,” Patel said. By Subhrojit Mallick , ET Bureau Published On Nov 16, 2024 at 07:53 AM IST Telegram Facebook Copy Link Be the first one to comment.
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