At current profits, 6G may be delayed, telecom association warns

Warning of 6G delay due to low profits in telecom industry, COAI director urges spectrum access for growth.

If telecom operators don’t make higher profits soon, the launch of 6G telecom networks may be delayed beyond 2030, warned Lt. Gen. (retd.) S.P. Kochhar, the director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents Indian telcos. Dr. Kochhar pointed to a central grievance by telcos: insufficient profits. Quoting a speech by the industry body GSMA’s president, he said, “telecom business in India is not viable with a profit of about 3%,” and that banks offer a higher return than this. 

The warning and the complaint have driven much of the telecom industry’s advocacy over the last few years, including the controversial demand that “large traffic generators” like Google and Amazon subsidise telcos’ network buildout, a demand that the government has given few signals it is taking seriously. Dr. Kochhar was speaking to reporters in Delhi.  

At the same time, he said, “so much investment without revenue generation becomes a poor business plan. So therefore the rollout of networks for 5G world over has slowed.” Telecom operators have hiked prices over the last few months in concert, in an attempt to recoup their 5G investments and post healthier profits. 

Dr. Kochhar defended the telecom industry’s insistence on getting access to 6 gigahertz spectrum, which some countries have de-licensed for use for WiFi. Tech companies have backed WiFi use, while telecom operators have urged governments to reserve those frequencies for mobile communications.

“For giving proper standalone 5G with three operators in a territory like India, we require 2000MHz” of spectrum, Dr. Kochhar insisted. “We would prefer to get it in the 3.3GHz C band,” he added, but that band is reserved for space communications and defence, which the government is unable to vacate at the moment, he said.