DoT de-licenses half of 6GHz band for WiFi

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Wednesday (January 21, 2026) de-licensed half the spectrum in the 6 gigahertz (GHz) band, a heavily contested band of airwaves that tech firms have argued needs to be freed up for WiFi and other free-of-cost use cases, and telecom firms have fought to safeguard to be auctioned for use in future generations of mobile telephony.

WiFi around the world almost universally uses two popular frequencies: 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Many routers operate these as two separate identifiers. But newer generations of WiFi, like WiFi 6E and WiFi 7, use a combination of both frequencies, leveraging the former for range and the latter for bandwidth, a technique known as “multi-link operation,” or MLO. 

Why India’s 6Ghz spectrum dilemma is affecting PS5 Pro console launch in the country

The 6GHz band is part of MLO in most newer-generation WiFi routers and gadgets alike. It is also useful for virtual reality headsets, which need to push through massive amounts of data with very little lag. However, while countries like the U.S. have allowed 6GHz to be unreserved and therefore usable for WiFi in homes, some like China have not, while others have split the spectrum into de-licensed and licensed segments.

Some restrictions remain, such as use on moving vehicles and oil rigs, but for most indoor use, 5,925–6,425MHz is now open for WiFi. The uncertainty on the legal fate of this band had driven away at least one big-ticket gadget from releasing in India: the PlayStation 5 Pro gaming console, which its manufacturer Sony said would not be released in markets where WiFi 7 frequencies were not permitted.

Routers that support 6GHz have typically switched the frequency off for operation in India — a software update may be issued for some of these devices in the coming weeks by manufacturers, which could lead to an improvement in performance in some contexts, bringing performance closer to what a computer connected with a LAN cable would be capable of.