Huawei says India should prioritise allocating contiguous blocks of affordable 5G spectrum to enable a successful nationwide rollout.
Company executives made the remarks during Huawei’s Connect event in Shanghai. Ken Hu, Huawei’s deputy chairman, identified spectrum allocation as one of India’s biggest challenges for 5G deployment.
“We hope that spectrum resources can be allocated more efficiently. It’s very important to have contiguous resources released to carriers in India,” Hu said.
International standards bodies recommend substantial contiguous spectrum for 5G performance. The ITU indicates that ‘true’ 5G requires roughly 100 MHz of 5G spectrum per operator in a contiguous block to deliver the expected capacity and speeds.
At the ET Telecom 5G Congress in August, Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal stressed similar needs, saying operators require far more spectrum to realise the full potential of 5G. Vittal commented that freeing up high-band millimetre-wave spectrum and ensuring sufficient mid-band allocations is essential.
“Indian operators need 1,000 MHz of spectrum each in order to do 5G properly. There is a lot of work to be done freeing up mmWave spectrum in the high bands.
Even when you talk about spectrum in the mid-band – the 3.5 GHz spectrum – every operator is going to need 75–100 MHz of spectrum. Otherwise, you will see a 5G icon displayed on your phone but, in reality, you will just be getting a 4G experience.”
International examples illustrate the argument. In the UK, mobile operator Three has promoted itself as the only network delivering “true” 5G because it holds 140 MHz of 5G-capable spectrum, including a single contiguous 100 MHz block. Its main rival, Vodafone, holds around 50 MHz of spectrum.
“5G is a game-changer for Three, and of course I am excited that we will be the only operator in the UK who can offer true 5G,” Three CEO Dave Dyson said in June.
That claim attracted scrutiny: the UK Advertising Standards Authority received several complaints about Three’s campaign, including one from BT, EE’s parent company. Such disputes underline the importance of clear, fair spectrum policy to avoid confusion and competitive tensions.
Huawei warns that India should avoid similar controversies and ensure spectrum is allocated as contiguous, cost-effective blocks so cash-constrained Indian carriers can deploy 5G services effectively without being hindered by fragmented or expensive licences.
“We need to see cheaper spectrum resources being released to the Indian carriers,” Hu added.