The Broadband India Forum (BIF) has expressed strong disappointment and serious concern over the National Frequency Allocation Plan (NFAP) 2025, stating that the document fails to address some of the most urgent and foundational spectrum requirements needed to deliver sustainable, affordable, inclusive, and future-ready broadband connectivity across India.
NFAP is expected to serve as a strategic and forward-looking policy instrument that reflects government intent, global technology trends, and outcomes of stakeholder consultations. However, BIF has highlighted that the complete omission of the Lower 6 GHz band from NFAP 2025 represents a significant policy gap. This omission is particularly surprising given that the Government of India had already declared its intent to delicence the band through a draft Gazette Notification issued on 16 May 2025, and reiterated the same intent in public forums, including announcements made on World WiFi Day 2025.
According to BIF, the absence of any reference to the Lower 6 GHz band marks a missed opportunity to strengthen India’s digital infrastructure and innovation ecosystem.
Lower 6 GHz Band Omission Undermines Spectrum Planning
BIF emphasized that considering the strategic importance of the Lower 6 GHz band for achieving the vision of a Viksit Bharat, NFAP 2025 should have at least included a forward-looking reference to the band. Even a brief mention indicating that operational and implementation details would be notified later through a separate General Spectrum Release would have provided much-needed policy clarity.
The concern is amplified by the fact that the Lower 6 GHz band is globally harmonised and already deployed in a license-exempt manner in 97 countries, with several others preparing to follow. This spectrum is widely regarded as essential for enabling modern and next-generation Wi-Fi technologies, including WiFi 6E, WiFi 7, and upcoming WiFi 8 standards.
These technologies are critical for delivering high-capacity, low-latency, and cost-efficient connectivity across homes, enterprises, campuses, public Wi-Fi hotspots, and smart infrastructure projects. By failing to even acknowledge the Lower 6 GHz band, NFAP 2025 weakens stakeholder confidence in India’s long-term Wi-Fi and innovation roadmap.
Departure From Stated Government Intent
BIF noted that the exclusion of the Lower 6 GHz band is not merely an oversight, but a clear departure from an already articulated government policy direction. Such inconsistency, the forum warned, introduces avoidable uncertainty for the ecosystem and risks slowing the momentum for innovation and the deployment of advanced Wi-Fi technologies across the country.
Policy continuity and alignment are especially critical at a time when India is positioning itself as a global digital leader and accelerating investments in next-generation connectivity.
Impact on Innovation, Inclusion, and Emerging Technologies
Wi-Fi remains the most affordable and widely used broadband access technology in India, playing a decisive role in indoor connectivity, public access networks, and last-mile digital inclusion. BIF stressed that access to the Lower 6 GHz band is essential to support high-growth and high-impact applications such as digital education, telemedicine, augmented and virtual reality, cloud gaming, metaverse platforms, digital twins, and immersive enterprise solutions.
These use cases require large contiguous spectrum blocks to deliver high throughput and low latency at scale. According to BIF, such performance requirements cannot be sustainably met without license-exempt access to the Lower 6 GHz band. By overlooking this reality, NFAP 2025 risks constraining India’s ability to leverage Wi-Fi as a key driver of innovation, productivity, and socio-economic transformation.
Call for Policy Coherence and Clarity
BIF underscored that the National Frequency Allocation Plan must demonstrate policy continuity, coherence, and clarity. The complete silence on the Lower 6 GHz band in NFAP 2025 runs counter to these principles and could delay the rollout of advanced Wi-Fi networks that are critical for achieving India’s digital ambitions.
Commenting on the issue, Mr. T. V. Ramachandran, President of the Broadband India Forum, said that the industry body is deeply disappointed that NFAP 2025 makes no mention of the Lower 6 GHz band, especially when a draft Gazette Notification for its delicensing had already been issued earlier this year, clearly signalling government intent.
He added that, at the very least, NFAP 2025 should have acknowledged this direction and indicated that operational details would follow under a General Spectrum Release. The absence of such recognition, he said, is a setback for innovation and for the deployment of advanced Wi-Fi needed to support critical use cases such as e-education, e-health, immersive technologies, and next-generation digital services.
BABURAJAN KIZHAKEDATH
