Telecom industry seeks ban on sale of WiFi 6E routers in India

Telecom industry body COAI has sought a ban on the sale of wifi 6E routers which utilise 6 Ghz spectrum band for data transmission as the government is yet to decide on the use of these frequencies.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has alleged that such routers are being sold through various e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and Moglix and by offline traders.

The COAI, whose members include Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, in a letter to the Department of Telecom on April 15 said the sale of equipment for 6 GHz band utilization, which has not yet been assigned for this purpose or has not been declared as licence-exempt by the government, is illegal and should be banned immediately in the country.

"We would like to submit that DoT is yet to take a policy decision related to the 6 GHz band utilization. Therefore, any sale of such Wi-Fi 6E products, which utilizes the 6 GHz spectrum band in delicensed manner, is illegal and such sale would only result in unauthorized transmissions in our country," COAI Director General SP Kochhar said in the letter.

The industry body submitted an annexure with the letter citing sample links of wifi routers of TP-Link and Google that operate in 6 Ghz band radio frequency, being sold online on Amazon, Flipkart, Moglix etc websites.

Email queries sent to Amazon, Flipkart, Moglix, and Google did not elicit any reply. However, Moglix removed the product after the query was shared with the company.

"The websites/online platforms listed in Annexure-A are engaged in selling wireless equipment for 6 GHz band utilization, which has not yet been assigned for this purpose or has not been declared as license-exempt by the Government," Kochhar said.

He said that the utilization of such wifi devices operating in the 6 GHz band will render customers responsible for these unauthorized transmissions, placing the burden of liability on consumers and shifting the onus of responsibility for such unauthorized transmissions from the real offenders to the consumers.

"We earnestly request the Department to kindly intervene in the matter and take strict measures to put a complete ban on the sale of Wi-Fi products operating in the 6 GHz band, whether offline or online through e-commerce websites/platforms, through an appropriate notification to sellers of such products in the country," Kochhar said.