6 GHz spectrum vital for India to meet national broadband mission targets: COAI

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Industry body COAI on Wednesday said it is critical to identify a 6 GHz band for mobile services, and mid-bands offering wide coverage and capacity are important for rapid and cost-efficient deployments of 5G mobile networks.

In case adequate spectrum in the 6 GHz band is not allocated to IMT, the country would have to account for around 60 per cent higher annual costs to achieve the performance expected from 5G services.

This would lead to delayed expansions and a significant increase in energy consumption and radio network cost, COAI cautioned.

The association also emphasised that the 6 GHz spectrum is vital for India to achieve the targets of the National Broadband Mission.

"The industry firmly believes that it is critical to identify the 6 GHz band for IMT services because it will not only aid in long-term network planning but also because 6 GHz is the last mid-band opportunity offering a provision of minimum 2 GHz contiguous mid-band spectrum, which will become critically essential for mobile communications beyond 2025," SP Kochhar, Director General of Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI), said in a statement.

The association said that 6 GHz is the only mid-band spectrum range where a contiguous bandwidth to the order of 300-400 MHz per operator is possible to make it available for the rapidly evolving demands towards 2030.