Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea fight with global tech majors like Google, Facebook for rich 6Ghz band

Kolkata: It’s a battle over 6 GHz for broadband speeds like 5G. On one side are Indian telcos Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Vodafone Idea (Vi). On the other are global tech majors Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Cisco, Qualcomm, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Broadcom.

The 6 GHz spectrum band can support internet speed of nearly 10 Gbps. Maximum mobile broadband speed in India is currently around 100 Mbps. Since 1 Gbps is 1,000 Mbps, the 6 GHz band can support up to 100 times faster internet speed.

In the US, non-telecom companies are allowed to operate in this band and offer services such as WiFi-6. If this is allowed in India, these tech companies can offer ultra high speed internet to potentially over a billion people. The complication in India, say telcos, is licencing. They argue that if 6 GHz is opened up for all comers, it won’t be a level playing field. Telcos will have to bear licence fees and spectrum usage charges as well as comply with security requirements, while tech majors won’t have such obligations and possess an “unfair” advantage.