After 5 Years of Deliberations, India Finally Joins the Unlicensed 6 GHz Club

In May 2025, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) revealed its long-awaited decision on the 6 Gigahertz (GHz) band, sharing its draft rules to release the lower portion of the band (5925–6425 Megahertz (MHz)) for unlicensed use, while reserving the upper portion (6425–7125 MHz) for licensed use by India’s telecommunications operators. The DoT’s plans, which are in alignment with the 6 GHz policies of Europe, Japan, Australia, and India’s immediate neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh, represent a major win for unlicensed 6 GHz, as there had been major concerns that the DoT would be swayed by the powerful mobile operator lobby in the country to designate the entire 6 GHz band for licensed use. The current scale and future potential of the Indian market guarantees that the DoT’s decision will prove to be highly consequential in the global contest for 6 GHz access. This ABI Insight takes stock of the current global landscape for 6 GHz access following India’s latest decision, and analyzes how it will impact the Wi-Fi industry in India and beyond.

The DoT’s 6 GHz announcement represents the culmination of over half a decade of fierce rivalry in India over access to the new spectrum band. On one side of the contest stood those advocating for unlicensed access, with a major proponent of this stance being the Broadband India Forum (BIF), while the other side, fronted by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), were lobbying for a private licensing of the band. Although these same debates were occurring worldwide, in most markets, there was a general acceptance that unlicensed was due at least partial access to 6 GHz, whereas the peculiarities of the Indian market meant that there was a real possibility of allocating the entire 6 GHz band for unlicensed in the country. There are several reasons for this. First, India differs from many other markets in that the vast majority of consumers lack traditional Internet access in the home (as of 2025, only 11.8% of Indian households have fixed broadband subscriptions) and instead rely on mobile connectivity as their main conduit to the Internet. With so few Indians relying on Wi-Fi in the home, unlicensed spectrum congestion appeared to be less of an issue, and therefore, a preference for mobile access to 6 GHz would, on the surface, benefit a greater segment of the population. A second factor was India’s drive to be a world leader in 6G technology, first outlined in the “Bharat 6G Vision Document” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2023. It was argued that reserving 6 GHz solely for cellular would have helped to support India’s 6G ambitions, and advocates saw Mainland China’s world leadership in 5G/6G (China is the only country to have explicitly assigned the entire 6 GHz for cellular) as vindication that this strategy could bring results. The third major reason was the strong operator lobby in India, spearheaded by the deep-pocketed giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. Indian operators have been exceedingly proactive in lobbying for their interests in the past, such as calling for restrictions on satellite broadband services and pressing for revised spectrum auction prices, and many assumed that they would also get their way with 6 GHz.

Although these factors were not insignificant, they were countered by an equally valid set of arguments against reserving all of the 6 GHz band for cellular. These include the fact that a mature ecosystem of 6 GHz cellular infrastructure does not yet exist, and that operators are not yet fully utilizing their existing spread of licensable spectrum. Perhaps even more convincingly is the rapid adoption that 6 GHz Wi-Fi is witnessing in other markets, proving the strong consumer demand that exists and the tangible economic value that 6 GHz can deliver. With persuasive arguments on both sides, the DoT ultimately opted to split the band between the two industries, allowing it to serve the interests of both industries. In doing so, India has joined a collection of over 50 countries that have taken the same stance. For Europe, Africa, and parts of Eurasia, this stance was reaffirmed at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23). Yet, while India’s inclusion does strengthen somewhat the grouping of countries with access to the lower 6 GHz only, the world is still fractured into three camps, with the two other groups consisting of those with full unlicensed access to 6 GHz, and those with no unlicensed access to 6 GHz. Unfortunately, there is little sign of global harmonization on 6 GHz access on the horizon, causing confusion that may hamper the adoption of 6 GHz.

India’s decision is significant for several reasons. First, the availability of unlicensed 6 GHz will not just underpin improved, more reliable connectivity experiences for consumers, but it will also encourage the release of more 6 GHz-enabled Wi-Fi devices in the country. For example, Sony stated in November 2024 that the PlayStation 5 Pro would not be available in India in the absence of 6 GHz, as the new band was necessary for the console’s function. With 6 GHz now available, the PlayStation 5 Pro, and other high-performance 6 GHz Wi-Fi consumer applications, will finally be able to launch. Another advantage for India is that support for 6 GHz at home will help India’s domestic Wi-Fi equipment vendors, such as HFCL and Digisol, to scale up their 6 GHz solutions, enabling them to become more competitive on the world stage. The availability of 6 GHz in India is also great news for foreign equipment vendors with stakes in the Indian market, because they will finally be able to sell fully equipped 6 GHz equipment in the country. Foreign vendors with large stakes in the Indian market at present include Cisco and Cambium Networks (targeted tariffs and import restrictions effectively bar Mainland Chinese vendors from the country). Another major ramification of the DoT decision is that it further isolates China, which is the only country to have reserved the entire 6 GHz band for unlicensed. This will narrow the overseas markets for 6 GHz cellular equipment, hindering Chinese vendors’ ability to scale up these solutions.

The DoT’s current plan is to auction the upper 6 GHz band at some point in the future. Yet, the precedent for a 6 GHz spectrum auction set by the world’s first upper 6 GHz license auction in Hong Kong last November is not particularly promising. The auction, conducted by Hong Kong’s Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA), concerned a total of 400 MHz of spectrum divided into 20 blocks of 20 MHz, which spanned from 6570–6770 MHz (blocks A1–A10), and 6925–7125 MHz (blocks A11–A20). The reserve price for each block was HK$40 million, and licenses were to be granted for a 15-year period. The outcome of the auction saw only three-quarters of the available spectrum sold (blocks A16 to A20 were left unsold) for a total of HK$630 million (equating to HK$42 million per block, just 5% over the reserve price). The lackluster interest was despite the fact that all bidders were able to benefit from a full tax deduction for spectrum fees payable on the acquired spectrum. The outcome of the OFCA auction reflects the immature state of 6 GHz cellular services today, and a concern from the operators involved that they may struggle to get a Return on Investment (ROI). Given this, it would not be surprising for national telecommunications regulators in markets where 6 GHz Wi-Fi is witnessing swift utilization to begin considering the reallocation of the upper 6 GHz band for unlicensed.

In the case of India, while it is unlikely that the upper 6 GHz band would ever be pried away from the cellular industry, a spectrum sharing method could be considered. For reference here, the DoT could look to the approach taken by the U.K. telecommunications regulator Ofcom, which in February 2025 proposed that Wi-Fi & IMT share the upper portion of 6 GHz (6425–7125 MHZ), with Wi-Fi allowed at low power indoor levels (250 Megawatts (mW)) only. The actual technical details of this sharing mechanism have yet to be finalized, but it would not be based on an Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) database model. Following Ofcom’s announcement was a 3-month consultation period ending on May 8. During this time, responses were submitted by a variety of companies, including those in favor, such as Qualcomm, and those against, including the GSMA and the BT Group. The main argument from both the GSMA and BT was that encroachment on the upper 6 GHz band may curtail future 6G services, a similar argument laid out as to why the spectrum should originally have been reserved for 5G. Ofcom will now assess the feedback before proceeding with its plan, and we are not likely to see any action on releasing spectrum for unlicensed for at least the next 12 months. India should pay close attention to the spectrum sharing developments underway in the United Kingdom, and can learn from Ofcom’s experiences during the consultation process. Should spectrum sharing ultimately be enacted by Ofcom, the United Kingdom may serve as a model that other nations, including India, can emulate.