Telecom industry body COAI pushes for ban on unlicensed Wi-Fi 6E router sales

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has called for a prohibition on the sale of Wi-Fi 6E routers that operate on the 6GHz spectrum band for data transmission. Alleging that these routers are being sold through various e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, by offline traders, COAI, whose members include Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone, has sent a letter to the Department of Telecom (DoT) on April 15.

In the letter, COAI highlighted the absence of a government decision regarding the use of frequencies in the 6GHz spectrum band. The association argued that selling equipment for 6GHz band utilisation without proper assignment or declaration by the government is illegal and should be immediately banned in the country.

“We would like to submit the DoT is yet to take a policy decision related to the six GHZ brand utilisation. Therefore, any sale of such Wi-Fi 6C products which utilise the six GHZ spectrum band, in delicensed manner is illegal and such sale would only result in unauthorised transmissions in our country, COAI director, general SP coach said in the letter,” said SP Kochhar, Director General of COAI.