BIF backs lower 6 GHz delicensing move, Wi-Fi 6E/7 set to gain

Policy think tank and industry body, Broadband India Forum (BIF), has welcomed the government’s decision to delicense the Lower 6 GHz band, calling it a long-awaited, consumer-centric move that could accelerate Wi-Fi innovation and improve the indoor broadband experience across India.

The decision, notified by the Ministry of Communications through Gazette rules dated 20 January 2026 and published on 21 January 2026, allows the 5925–6425 MHz band to be used on a licence-exempt basis for low-power indoor and very low-power wireless access systems, including radio local area networks.

Highlighting that the industry had waited more than three years for this decision, BIF President TV Ramachandran said that it was one of India’s most consequential telecom policy interventions in recent times.

According to him, the move reflects extensive stakeholder consultation and represents a balanced outcome aligned with consumer interest, national priorities, and the needs of India’s digital economy, including research, start-ups, and innovation.

He also stressed that the decision was strategically important in the context of India’s 5G and emerging 6G roadmap, highlighting that high-frequency mobile bands typically face indoor penetration challenges.

Ramachandran said the newly opened 6 GHz Wi-Fi band could help bridge the “indoor-outdoor divide”, given that most data consumption happens indoors. He argued that 6 GHz Wi-Fi could provide users with better access to modern, data-intensive applications inside homes, offices, and other indoor environments.

Licence-Exempt 6 GHz Opens Wi-Fi Headroom

The Lower 6 GHz band is expected to improve Wi-Fi speeds and performance by enabling wider channel bandwidths of up to 320 MHz, allowing more data to be transmitted simultaneously and reducing congestion in dense usage environments.

Industry stakeholders have long argued that Wi-Fi capacity expansion is becoming essential as broadband usage shifts towards high-bandwidth applications such as cloud gaming, ultra-HD streaming, immersive AR/VR, smart wearables, and other latency-sensitive digital services.

With the delicensing, the government has effectively created additional spectrum headroom for next-generation Wi-Fi standards such as Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7, both of which rely on the 6 GHz band for best performance, especially in high-interference settings.

The Gazette notification specifies operational and technical constraints for operating in the 5925–6425 MHz range, including maximum power, bandwidth, and out-of-band emissions.

It also includes restrictions that prevent use in certain scenarios, reinforcing that the current framework is primarily aimed at controlled wireless deployments, rather than unrestricted outdoor usage.

USD 250-Billion Opportunity for Wi-Fi Leadership

BIF Chairperson Aruna Sundararajan underlined the broader economic and innovation upside of the decision, stating that India has an opportunity to become a global leader in Wi-Fi technologies due to the country’s high readiness and adoption potential.

She pegged the estimated value of unlocking this opportunity at around USD 250 billion, calling the delicensing of 6 GHz spectrum a crucial step towards achieving that goal.

The forum’s reaction suggests that the government’s move will be seen as enabling not only a better consumer broadband experience, but also an innovation platform for India’s device ecosystem, start-ups, and digital infrastructure builders.

With Wi-Fi increasingly becoming the primary access layer for households and enterprises—and a complementary layer to 5G in indoor settings—the delicensing is expected to influence everything from router and handset roadmaps to immersive application rollouts.

For the telecom and digital infrastructure sector, the 6 GHz decision also reinforces the evolving spectrum policy direction, positioning unlicensed bands as a parallel engine of broadband growth alongside licensed spectrum used by telecom operators.

Also Read

BIF urges government to reconsider auctioning 6 GHz band for IMT
BIF urges delicensing of 30 MHz spectrum for road safety tech
Affordable broadband access in India needs urgent policy push
Fibre first: Rethinking India’s broadband backbone for growth