The 6 GHz band has become the centre of a dispute that will help define Europe’s communications of the future. The battle involves the major organisations that set standards such as Wi-Fi, big tech companies and telecom operators. The European Commission will have to decide how to allocate the use of these radiofrequency bands given the limitations of the radio spectrum.
The Wi-Fi Alliance and the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) have published open letters addressed to the EU’s digital ministers, expressing concern that the upper 6 GHz band (6,425 to 7,125 MHz) could end up out of bounds for Wi-Fi networks in EU member states.
The issue is that the latest Wi-Fi standards, such as Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7, are able to use frequencies across the entire 6 GHz band to deliver higher performance. However, mobile operators also have their eye on this band for 5G and 6G network services.
The European Commission’s Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) is looking at ways to share the upper 6 GHz band between licence-exempt technologies such as Wi-Fi and licensed mobile networks. The lower part of the band is already licence-exempt. The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, is following a similar policy after a consultation process in 2023.
However, the Wi-Fi camp fears that the German government has changed its position to favour exclusive use of the upper 6 GHz band by mobile networks, which could influence the RSPG’s decision. A spokesperson for the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport told German news site Heise Online: “It is considered that the frequency requirements of mobile network operators in the upper 6 GHz band, with a view to future 6G applications, are greater than those of Wi-Fi applications.”
At present, it should be noted that 6 GHz Wi-Fi spectrum in the EU is limited to the use of channels between 5,945 MHz and 6,425 MHz — corresponding to the U-NII-5 band under the FCC classification — which gives a total of 12 usable 40 MHz channel groups. However, this only amounts to three 160 MHz channel groups or two overlapping 320 MHz channel groups, which means the band is already highly congested, hence the battle to gain access to its frequencies.
6 GHz band: more cellular, less Wi-Fi?
The Wi-Fi Alliance and the DSA are trying to stoke concerns that such a move would seriously damage Europe’s digital development, arguing that Wi-Fi is the main way consumers access the internet and that restricting it would hold back progress.
Organisations and tech companies
“Blocking Wi-Fi access to the upper 6 GHz band would be devastating for the future of Wi-Fi technology in Europe. This spectrum is uniquely positioned to sustain the evolution of the Wi-Fi ecosystem and enable the next generation of digital innovation,” the DSA said.
The DSA presents itself as a global body that advocates for regulations enabling more efficient spectrum use, but its membership list appears to be made up largely of U.S. tech giants: Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Broadcom and Cisco, all of them also interested in the future of the 6 GHz band in Europe.
For its part, the Wi-Fi Alliance complained that its members had been working with the RSPG proposals to try to use the spectrum on a shared basis, in line with the European Commission’s mandate. “The mobile industry is opposed to any compromise. It is now demanding exclusive use of the entire upper 6 GHz band for mobile services, arguing that this would strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty,” it says.
Operators
The mobile telecoms industry, of course, sees things differently. Vodafone has already carried out tests in the upper 6 GHz frequencies, reaching download speeds of up to 5 Gbps, and says the band should be available to boost cellular capacity when current bandwidth runs out.
Nokia and Swedish telecoms company Telia also carried out a pilot deployment using the upper 6 GHz spectrum last year, claiming it demonstrated the ability to add “massive capacity” in urban areas and to improve performance and coverage in suburban or rural areas. In this sense, operators have the backing of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which allocated the upper 6 GHz band to cellular services at the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC).
The European Commission’s Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) will vote on the issue, helping to define the future of communications in Europe.
