Coming Soon: Better Gaming, Streaming, High Quality Video Calls...

This would enable better gaming, streaming, high quality video calls and better device-to-device connectivity without the need to improve the power capacity of the wi-fi routers.

Devices such as the latest versions of the Sony Playstation and augmented reality and virtual reality devices from Meta and Apple would be supported by these frequencies, and could be launched in India along with other global markets.  

In a notification issued by the ministry of communications dated January 20, the government has exempted low power indoor and very low power outdoor devices to use the frequencies without any licence or frequency assignment for establishing, maintaining, working, possessing or dealing in any wireless equipment.

The equipment includes 'radio local area networks operating in the frequency band on noninterference, non-protection and shared (non-exclusive) basis', but has prohibited the band from being used in land vehicles such as cars or trains, boats and aircrafts except when flying above 10,000 feet, in communication and control of drones and unmanned aerial systems. 

As per the notification, devices operating in the frequency band will employ a contention-based protocol,  the wireless equipment must have an in-built and integrated antenna which has to be approved, designed and manufactured so that the bandwidth of emission and other parameters conforms to the prescribed rules. 

Experts noted that the rules will provide clarity for applications such as smart factories, connectivity at the enterprise level and use cases that may be extremely data-intensive where technologies such as AI, AR and VR are deployed.

The rules follow recommendations from the sector regulator following a consultation with stakeholders where telecom service providers had opposed earmarking the lower end of the 6 Ghz spectrum band for unlicensed indoor wi-fi use.

Technology companies had backed the need for opening up this spectrum band for other uses beyond the use cases of telecom service providers. The carriers had argued that the entire 6 GHz band, with 1200 MHz of spectrum, be allocated through auction for mobile communications, and not be divided with others for low-powered de-licensed wifi use.

-- Business Standard