Tech companies seek higher power limit for Wi-Fi devices

New Delhi: The technology industry wants the power levels permitted for Wi-Fi and other devices to be used under the 6 GHz spectrum band to be reviewed and aligned with global standards, so that users can get the best performances and devices remain affordable.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has come out with draft rules for use of low power and very low power wireless systems in the lower 6 GHz band, which has been delicensed, or will be allocated without auctions. Once the consultation on the draft rules is over, the final rules will be notified allowing the latest Wi-Fi routers and gaming consoles to work in India.

As per experts, the current power levels proposed by DoT may limit the range and throughput of very low power devices. The DoT has proposed a maximum power spectral density (PSD) level of -5 dBm/MHz and total transmit power of 14 dBm for such devices.


The industry wants it to be revised to 1 dBm/MHz for very low power indoor and outdoor devices otherwise it could have a major impact on the performance of Wi-Fi advanced applications such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) collectively, which demand high throughput and latency performance

Although this increase is not beneficial to applications requiring wide channel bandwidth sizes of 80/160/320MHz, it can incrementally help with very low power applications utilising 20 MHz and 40 MHz channel sizes.

As per Broadband India Forum (BIF), which counts tech majors like Meta, Google, Microsoft, Amazon as members, the permitted power levels need to be reviewed so as to permit equitable distribution of devices in indoor and outdoor environments.

“Also, it needs to be aligned with global best practices to enable use of affordably priced devices in India,” BIF President TV Ramachandran said.

He also reiterated the demand to delicense another 160 MHz spectrum in the 6 GHz band so that the full economic benefits can be realised. The government has so far delicensed 500 MHz spectrum ((5925-6425 MHz) in the band.

“The complete benefits of license exemption of 6GHz spectrum band can only be realised when at least an additional 160 MHz is delicensed – bringing the total to at least 660 MHz,” Ramachandran said.

Experts said the 6 GHz band can offer data speeds of up to 9.6 gigabits per second (Gbps), against 1.3 Gbps in the 5 GHz band and 600 megabit per second (Mbps) in the 2.4 GHz band. Over 84 countries, including the US, UK and South Korea, have already delicensed the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi services.

Wi-Fi services are currently offered in India through the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. These are congested and offer limited speeds and capacity for data-heavy applications such as online gaming, internet of things, assisted reality and virtual reality.