Trai issues consultation paper on microwave spectrum across bands

The regulatory body, in a consultation paper, aims to find demand, scope of service and conditions for allocation across eight spectrum bands

In a first, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday released a consultation paper seeking to assess the demand for, and the scope of service for microwave spectrum across eight spectrum bands. 

 

Aiming to create guidelines for microwave spectrum in the 6 GHz, 7 GHz, 13 GHz, 15 GHz, 18 GHz and 21 GHz bands, along with V-band and E-band, the paper seeks industry views on how to assign spectrum in various microwave bands for commercial backhaul, along with the terms and conditions, including pricing, spectrum caps, and carrier aggregation. 

 

Called the “lifeblood of today’s cellular mobile networks”, microwave spectrum is used for providing both last mile “access” to consumer devices, as well as backhaul links in places where laying the optical fiber cables is difficult or economically unviable.

 

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has now asked the regulator to provide a comprehensive assessment covering several areas. These include evaluating demand and usage possibilities for the V-band (57–66 GHz) and E-band (71–76 GHz / 81–86 GHz), and determining whether they should be used for access, backhaul, or integrated access and backhaul services.

 

The microwave spectrum ranging from 400 MHz to 4 GHz was used for providing cellular mobile radio access, while the one ranging from 6 GHz to 24 GHz was used for providing backhaul. However, the recent introduction of 5G technology has led to the need for wider frequency channels and now frequencies above 24 GHz are also used for both cellular mobile radio access and backhaul.

 

DoT also wants TRAI to examine whether the 7 GHz and 15 GHz bands, currently used for backhaul, should be re-evaluated for mobile telephony now or after the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) takes a call on them in 2027.Also, it has asked which commercial telecom services should the spectrum in traditional microwave backhaul bands be assigned for radio backhaul purposes.

 

Trai has also been asked to examine how spectrum in non-mobile telephony bands could be used for last-mile connectivity through fixed wireless access, and for captive backhaul services. The feasibility of permitting low-power indoor device-to-device communication in the V-band on a licence-exempt basis is also under review. Stakeholders will have to submit their inputs by June 25, with counter-comments accepted until July 9. 

What is microwave spectrum?

Often called the "lifeblood of today’s cellular mobile networks," microwave spectrum is used to provide both last-mile access to consumer devices and backhaul connectivity in areas where laying optical fibre cables is technically difficult or economically unviable. 

Spectrum demand & allocation

  - Paper seeks industry views on assigning spectrum

  - DoT asks the regulator to assess V-, E-band usage

  - Microwave spectrum demand evaluation underway by Trai

  - Regulator consults on spectrum assignment and pricing

  - Stakeholders to submit inputs by June 25