6 GHz band spectrum for Wi-Fi to drive broadband penetration

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Awareness in IT

Concept :

New Delhi-based policy think tank Broadband India Forum (BIF) on Tuesday said the spectrum in the 6 GHz band is crucial for Wi-Fi and the same is required to drive broadband penetration across the country.
The 6 GHz band includes 1200 MHz spectrum in the range of 5.9-7.1 GHz. According to National Frequency Allocation Plan 2022, the spectrum in the band is allocated for fixed satellite and mobile services.
BIF has conducted a very exhaustive study for co-existence in the 6GHz band based on actual data, which has conclusively proved that Wi-Fi can co-exist with incumbent users of Fixed Services (FS) and Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) in the band.
However, Broadband India Forum and other experts believe that the government should either delicense the complete spectrum available in the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi or at least give part of the spectrum.

Need for allocating the spectrum to WiFi :

Given that public Wi-Fi is the way to accelerate broadband penetration across the country, liberalisation of public Wi-Fi through the PM-WANI scheme is one of the important steps to help achieve the government of India’s vision of Digital India and to attain the objectives of providing ‘Broadband for all‘.
Allocating the spectrum for Wi-Fi include indoor coverage of internet better than mobile networks, boost innovations including artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality, etc, using Wi-Fi6E and Wi-Fi 7 technologies, mobile data offloading on Wi-Fi in areas with lower telecom coverage, among others.

For further notes on spectrum allocation, refer – https://optimizeias.com/spectrum-2/