Summary
- India has de-licensed the lower 6 GHz band (5925-6425 MHz), allowing license-free use of it.
- The move enables Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7, promising faster speeds, lower latency and reduced congestion across homes and offices.
- The upper 6 GHz band remains reserved for potential licensed use, balancing Wi-Fi expansion with future 5G and 6G needs.
India has now taken a decisive step toward faster and more reliable wireless connectivity by opening up a key portion of the 6 GHz spectrum for license-free use. This could significantly boost next-generation Wi-Fi technologies, free up network congestion and increase the adoption of high-speed internet across homes, offices and public spaces.
Why India’s Licence-Free 6 GHz Move Is a Big Deal for Wi-Fi
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has officially de-licensed the lower half of the 6 GHz band, allowing unlicensed use of the spectrum between 5925 MHz and 6425 MHz. Devices operating in this range will no longer require spectrum licenses or frequency assignments, provided they comply with prescribed technical and power norms.
With this, India has made 500 MHz of prime mid-band spectrum available for Wi-Fi use, aligning itself with several global markets that have already opened the 6 GHz band for unlicensed access. This is expected to help in enabling Wi-Fi 6E and the upcoming Wi-Fi 7 technologies, which rely heavily on wider channels to deliver proper speeds.
To actually benefit from the 6 GHz band, users will understandably need devices that support Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7. Several mobile phones, laptops and routers already ship with this support and more are expected to follow as adoption grows.
For those unaware, the 6 GHz band offers significantly more capacity than the already congested 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. As households and workplaces add more connected devices, access to cleaner and wider spectrum is becoming more essential.
This also seems like quite the strategic move, since Telecom operators had previously pushed for the entire 6 GHz band to be auctioned for licensed mobile services. Now, by delicensing only the lower half of the spectrum and retaining the upper portion, the government seems to have attempted to address both Wi-Fi growth and long-term mobile network planning.
Users can soon expect to see faster speeds, more stable connections and better performance for bandwidth-heavy tasks like 4K/8K streaming, cloud gaming and remote work.
As next-generation Wi-Fi rolls out, users may also need to better understand and manage their wireless networks, including tasks like checking saved Wi-Fi passwords or configuring new routers.
