Where does global 6 GHz adoption stand?

Broadcom says the 6 GHz band, which offers a total bandwidth of 1,200 MHz, is the ideal place for Wi-Fi’s expansion

It’s been nearly a year since December’s World Radio Conference (WRC-23), where claims of global consensus on mid-band spectrum harmonization were made. At the time, Broadcom’s Director of Technology Strategy Christopher Szymanski told RCR Wireless News that this claim wasn’t entirely accurate given the variance in portions of spectrum identified and the conditions in which the spectrum was allocated. 

And now, in a more recent conversation, Szymanski again reiterated the importance of 320 megahertz channels and of a three-channel minimum per market for Wi-Fi. Further, he maintains that the 6 GHz band, which is the frequency range 5.925–7.125 GHz and offers a total bandwidth of 1,200 MHz, is the ideal place for Wi-Fi’s expansion.

“It’s been nearly a year since the WRC conference where certain regions were exploring IMT identification, with the GSMA saying this is necessary for the future of 5G-Advanced and 6G and the Wi-Fi industry saying it’s necessary for the future of Wi-Fi,” said Szymanski. But it seems that even in the short time since the conference, Wi-Fi has gained some ground in this fight.

EMEA

Coming out of the WRC, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) identified 6425-7125 MHz for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), noting that this band is also used for deployment of RLANs (e.g., Wi-Fi).

Much of the discussion around the need for 6 GHz IMT has been driven out of EMEA. In fact, the UAE has just announced the allocation of 6425-7125 MHz to its two operators for IMT use. “This appears to be premature,” claimed Szymanski. “There is no market yet for 6 GHz IMT. There is no user equipment in the market that could take advantage of such an allocation. It’s unlikely that other countries will allocate the entire upper 6 GHz for IMT, which would leave the UAE in a position where they’ve gotten way ahead of the global market.”

Europe

Europe, he said, is “neck deep” in technical studies. “And it looks like Wi-Fi access to at least part of the upper 6 GHz in Europe will be granted on a shared basis with IMT, or as an extension of the lower 6 GHz rules. I see no scenario in Europe in which Wi-Fi will not have meaningful access to more spectrum in the Upper 6 GHz band,” he continued, adding that much of the current discussion in Europe is around the technical conditions that would allow IMT and Wi-Fi to operate in the same spectrum. 

“Broadcom believes that the only way that IMT and Wi-Fi can operate in the same frequencies at the same time is if there is separation between these networks such as constraining Wi-Fi use to indoors and IMT to outdoors, or through some type of frequency coordination database, such as an AFC,” said Szymanski.

He continued: “Indoor Wi-Fi and Outdoor IMT shows the most promise, but this can only happen if IMT is constrained to medium power.” If the technical conditions required for Wi-Fi and IMT to share the frequency cannot meet the market requirements, some type of band split is the most likely outcome. Szymanski forsees a scenario in which Wi-Fi has access to another 320 MHz channel under the same conditions as the lower 6 GHz, and then opportunistic access to the remainder of the spectrum until IMT is needed in that location.

The Americas

Brazil and Mexico were the only two countries in the Americas to leave the WRC with IMT designations in the 6 GHz band. Specifically, they both reserved the 6425-7125 MHz range for IMT identification.

Indeed, Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (ANATEL) in June confirmed proposed updates that would restrict Wi-Fi 6 GHz band from the current range of 5925-7125 MHz to a narrower band of 5925-6425 MHz for this plan.

However, Szymanski thinks that actual use for IMT is more far more challenging than it appears: “First, they would have to make an actual regulatory change, which hasn’t happened yet. Second, there are a considerable number of enterprise grade access points that are already in the market. What happens to those enterprises that have already invested in infrastructure and are relying on use of the whole band,” he said. “Third, actual deployment of IMT in the upper 6 GHz requires quite a few things to happen. There are a considerable number of fixed links that would need to be removed, or relocated. This is a non-trivial task. Would a spectrum auction for Brazilian operators even drive sufficient revenue to enable such a relocation? Has anyone announced 6 GHz IMT user equipment yet? When is such equipment expected to be available for the Brazilian market?”

No announcements have been made regarding upper 6 GHz in Mexico to date.

APAC

At the WRC’s conclusion, the APAC region was given the 7025-7125 MHz band as their IMT allocation (Cambodia, Laos and Maldives were exceptions and received the full 6425-7125 GHz band for IMT).

Since then, though, Kazakhstan stands out as it has chosen to adopt the full 5925-7125 MHz range. “I know it’s a smaller country, but their GDP per capita is higher than China and Russia,” Szymanski commented, noting that despite Kazakhstan’s close relationship with these two, much bigger countries, neither of them are planning to adopt 6 GHz for Wi-Fi. However, for Broadcom, this development in Kazakhstan signals true momentum for 6 GHz Wi-Fi in the APAC region.

Hong Kong was the first place to allocate and auction 6 GHz spectrum for IMT. Szymanski thought this auction was illustrative of the overall 6 GHz IMT market and should provide a strong note of caution to regulators worldwide. “The operators told the regulator [Office of the Communications Authority] that they thought the auction was premature as there is no 6 GHz user equipment. Only three quarters of the 400 MHz of spectrum was successfully auctioned. And the spectrum was auctioned at one tenth the value of MHz/POP as the 2.3 GHz band which was auctioned at the same time,” Szymanski explained.

According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, 13 countries have adopted the full 5925-7125MHz range, while Qatar, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia already having adopted part of the band for Wi-Fi use and are currently considering open up the rest of it. And for those committed to some IMT identification for the 6 GHz band, Szymanski was clear that spectrum will be needed from somewhere else for Wi-Fi. “The market is the market,” he said, referring to the very real need for more unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum. “So, if they can only give us two bands, where’s the other 320 megahertz going to come from?”