The global federation of the telecommunications industry, the GSM Association, has called on the Ministry of Telecommunications to provide a 6000 megahertz frequency band for 5G services to support future expansion of services.
The government has auctioned off spectrum frequencies in the 3300-3670MHz band, known as the mid-band, which has been identified as the most suitable band for 5G.
The GSMA estimates that in 2025-2030 the total mid-band spectrum requirement per market will be around 2000 megahertz to meet the requirements for 5G, the association said in a letter to DoT.
“…due to limited spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band for IMT (5G) due to existing users, many governments and regulators are considering steps to increase their mid-band spectrum allocations in the 6 GHz band for IMT,” GSMA said.
The global telecom body, whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea of India, said the government needed to do this urgently as 5G will need significantly more mid-band spectrum support for various use cases in 2025-2030, new harmonized ones Bands for IMT including 6 GHz on regional and international platforms.