BIF writes to telecom minister to free up 5875–5905 MHz spectrum for use in vehicles safety
Broadband India Forum (BIF) has written to the Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia requesting freeing up 30 MHz of 5875–5905 MHz spectrum, to be used in the vehicles for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication technologies, considering the critical importance of this band in preventing accidents and saving lives.
“The timely delicensing of the 30 MHz spectrum band (5875–5905 MHz) will open a clear pathway for industry stakeholders — including automobile manufacturers, technology developers and researchers — to introduce and scale V2V-based safety solutions,” TV Ramachandran, President, BIF, said in the letter.
Further, delicensing of this band is necessary as Indian cars are being rolled out using on-board units (OBUs) in this band. Again, this band cannot be licensed as cars of different makes would be communicating with each other and therefore, it is imperative that this band be delicensed, so that this service/ facility can be utilised on a large scale to reap the benefit of saving more number of human lives and reducing the number of road accidents, sources quoting the letter said.
Timely allocation and delicensing of this 30MHz spectrum will also help accelerate industry investment, encourage indigenous innovation and bring Indian road safety practices in line with global standards, the letter noted.
“It is a precedent in the Ministry to delicense frequency bands without seeking the explicit recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Referring the matter to TRAI at this stage is likely to introduce significant delays, as TRAI typically undertakes an exhaustive consultation process before arriving at a decision,” it said.
As per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) 2023 report, India recorded 4.62 lakh road crashes and 1.70 lakh fatalities in a single year. This underscores the urgency of expediting delicensing of 5.9 GHz (30 MHz) for V2V. Also, many Indian car manufacturers like Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors have started pre-fitting their cars with OBUs, it explained.
“Therefore, considering the critical importance of this 30 MHz spectrum band in preventing accidents and saving lives…the Department may kindly be advised to delicense this 30MHz (5875–5905 MHz) with the highest priority and it be fast-tracked without need for seeking recommendations from TRAI on this issue,” Ramachandran added in the letter.
Published on September 25, 2025
