Trai offers 3 options to allocate 6GHz
Trai) has outlined three options – auction, non-auction, and hybrid – for ways to allocate frequency in the 6 GHz spectrum band (5925 MHz-7125 MHz) as part of a white paper on the 6 GHz band.
The 6 GHz spectrum band has been a bone of contention between the India telcos Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea on one side and tech giants like Amazon and Meta on the other. While the telcos want the spectrum band to be auctioned, or allocated through the licensed route, the tech lobby has called for it to be sanctioned under the unlicensed route, or allotted without auctions.
As part of the hybrid route, Trai said that the lower part of the spectrum band (5925/5945-6425 MHz) can be assigned for unlicensed use and the upper part (6425-7125 MHz) for licensed use.
While giving the allocation options in a white paper issued recently, the sector regulator has also outlined the pros and cons of the proposed methods.
“The allocation of the 6 GHz band for licensing is one of the considerations in the field of wireless communications, especially demanded by TSPs (telecom service providers) for 5G deployment,” Trai said in the paper.
It said that there is a significant challenge in making spectrum available for 5G use in the C-band (3.3-4.2 GHz) due to the presence of existing users and usage.
