Industry asks for Delicensing 6 GHz Spectrum at "New Spectrum for Wi-Fi"

At the "New Spectrum for Wi-Fi", a virtual workshop organized by ITU-APT Foundation of India, along with Wi-Fi Now, sponsored by the Wi-Fi Alliance, Qualcomm, and Wireless World Research Forum, the broadband industry has requested the government to follow the global trends and delicense the 6 GHz spectrum, in order to support WiFi 6E and beyond.

Wi-Fi - The Need of the Hour

At the Inaugural Session, Tilak Raj Dua, Chairman, IAFI, noted that Wi-Fi networks carry about half of the data traffic. Calling the event "important", he noted that we need broadband networks in order to work in tandem with mobile networks. Talking about delicensing the spectrum required for broadband, he added, "many countries have already delicensed 6GHz for WiFi". Therefore, India needs to follow the same, Mr. Dua concurred.

In his concluding remarks, he said, "As India embarks on the journey to 5G and other new technologies and applications, WiFi 6 needs to be there to support mobile networks".

As the first session progressed, Bharat Bhatia, President, IAFI, delivered an insightful presentation on how delicensing the 6 GHz band, along with V, and E-bands will benefit India's broadband ecosystem. He explored that while India has a significant chunk of delicensed spectrum, it falls short of India's needs. He also explored new possibilities with applications of the said unlicensed spectrum. At the conclusion, Mr. Bhatia urged the government to delicense the spectrum between 5925 MHz and 7025 MHz, along with the V-band.

Delicensing the 6 GHz Band - A Priority

Soon thereafter, the stage was handed to Claus Hetting, CEO & Chairman, Wi-Fi Now. Hetting talked at length about the potential of WiFi in India. "There is no better match between a technology and a country than WiFi and India. WiFi is the most democratic technology in existence, and India is the largest democracy in the world", he said. Calling Wi-Fi a "great equalizer", he said, "WiFi can end the digital divide, or at least it has the potential to do so". However, he also expressed concern over licensing the 6 GHz spectrum and hoped that India will delicense it soon.

Following him, Paramjit Singh Puri, Director Memberships, Wi-Fi Alliance, talked about how WiFi promised huge socioeconomic benefits. He noted that while WiFi 6 will deliver speeds of up to 9 Gbps, WiFi 7 will deliver speeds of up to 30 Gbps. Puri said that WiFi in India will add $240 billion to the GDP of the country in economic value delivered by 2025, with global value rising to $4.9 trillion. He reiterated Mr. Dua's comments at the beginning, that WiFi carries about half of the world's data traffic. Therefore, it becomes imperative to delicense all spectrum to use for Wi-Fi. Puri concluded by noting that the 6 GHz band will help the industry unlock the true potential of WiFi networks.

Speaking on a similar topic, Professor Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur, explored the need for a new spectrum for WiFi networks. He noted that the country's WiFi networks have been pegged back by the unavailability of an adequate spectrum. Interestingly, he explored how 5G can benefit from WiFi getting an adequate spectrum. "WiFi 6 has very nice support for 5G use cases, especially for low-mobility use cases. It nicely integrates with 5G core and has excellent support for eMBB use cases. it also nicely compliments 5G use cases and integrates with 5G core", Professor Karandikar said.

Government Considering All Possibilities

At the first session itself, Mr. RK Saxena, Wireless Advisor to the GoI, said that the government will delicense spectrum as it deems fit. "6 GHz band is currently exclusively used by satellites for broadcasting of channels. Therefore, we will need to study the utility of this band for wifi service providers. On the other hand, it is possible to increase the economic value of this band by sharing this band, adding value to the GDP", Saxena said.

He added, "6 GHz band is currently exclusively used by satellites for broadcasting of channels. Therefore, we will need to study the utility of this band for wifi service providers. On the other hand, it is possible to increase the economic value of this band by sharing this band, adding value to the GDP".

At the same platform, Mr. AK Tiwari, Member Technology, DoT, also echoed Mr. Saxena's views on the same, reassuring the industry that the government is considering their requests. "Considerations for releasing the V-band and 6 GHz band are already being discussed", Tiwari said. He added, "DoT is actively considering each part of the argument, and very soon, we will have the approval on the course of action".

Ashish Tayal, Director (R-I), Ministry of Communications, TEC, talked about the possibilities for utilizing the delicensed spectrum. He also talked about how India allocates spectrum, and how DoT and TRAI will do so in the future.

New Use Cases, New Technologies with Wi-Fi

The second session of the event was dedicated to the technical aspects of WiFi 6E and beyond. Vikram Tiwathia, Deputy Director-General, COAI, talked about how WiFi will complement 4G, 5G, and beyond. "We were at about 13-14 Mbps before the spectrum auction took place last March. Since then, the new spectrum bands have been deployed. Now, the average speed is about 17 Mbps. And this has to go up to 50 Mbps", Tiwathia said.

The other industry members also demonstrated possibilities with WiFi, ranging from telecom to satcom. N Sivasailam, Administrative Member, Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal, noted that most of the unlicensed spectrum was going to waste. "We are not doing anything with the V-band and the E-band, and they are going to waste. We are losing not only the development of the ecosystem, but we are also missing out on the future for our engineers", he said. He added that the spectrum can help provide backhaul where laying fiber remains unfeasible. "It isn't possible to lay down fiber everywhere, and there, E and V-band spectrum will help," Sivasailam said.

Additionally, Bharat Gupta, Head of Corporate Affairs, Sterlite Technologies Limited, also presented the opportunities delicensing the 6 GHz spectrum presents. Speaking of the recently announced Union Budget 2022, he said, "Budget has a major focus on infra development, be it roads, highways, ports, and so on, which are essentially the pillars of the PM Gati Shakti program. I believe that ICT will be the ether of this".

The speakers also discussed the unlicensed spectrum and its impact on satcom. Bashir Patel, Senior Regional Advisor Policy and Regulatory, South Asia, Middle East, and Africa, Inmarsat, talked about the same. In his presentation, he noted that since Geosats already use the frequency for uplink, via the L-band, the band should remain unlicensed, for everyone to use. He explored using a 6 GHz spectrum in 5G/IMT, WiFi 6, and satcom.

The session concluded with DM Ezhil Buddhan ITS, Principal General Manager, Broadband Networks, BSNL, giving a presentation on BSNL’s work in broadband and Wi-Fi.

Expanding Horizons With Wi-Fi

The third session of the Wi-Fi workshop discussed further possibilities with WiFi. To start with, Claus Hetting addressed a panel of speakers that included Uday Dodla, Senior Director, Business Development, Qualcomm. Dodla presented Qualcomm’s viewpoint on WiFi 6, “having sold about 5 billion chipsets since 2015,” he said. He talked about Qualcomm’s India presence and what the plan ahead will entail for the silicon giant in India and Wi-Fi.

Following Dodla, Alexander Roytblat, VP, Regulatory Affairs, Wi-Fi Alliance, talked about the Global Wi-Fi scenario and the way forward for India. He introduced the Wi-Fi Alliance, and what it does. Further, he talked about how India remains in a prime position to take global leadership in WiFi. He shared some statistics related to network usage since COVID-19 while looking at the future of connectivity with WiFi at the core of it.

Martha Suarez, President, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, took the virtual stage next. Delivering a presentation on spectrum requirements for WiFi, she pointed out how WiFi remains essential to broadband in general. As such, she said, “6 GHz band is essential to WiFi,” she said. She pressed on that the Indian ecosystem needs at least 1200 MHz of unlicensed spectrum, for the ecosystem to achieve its true potential.

At the end of the session, Alan Norman, Director, Public Policy, Meta, talked about how the 6 GHz spectrum is important for the Metaverse. Since the Metaverse required high speeds and network capacities, with minimal delays, delicensing 6 GHz becomes a matter of interest for Meta. As such, Alan noted that Meta remains "big advocates of having enough spectrum for making both 5G and WiFi successful”.

The True Wi-Fi Experience

At the concluding session, Mr. HC Soni, Treasurer, IAFI, summarized the remarks from all of the speakers and concluded with reiterating the main message from the workshop: delicensing 6 GHz spectrum and providing enough unlicensed spectrum for the WiFi industry to shine. With that, the ITU-APT event concluded.