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A handy guide to frequency bands used for

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Use of radio frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum is regulated by governments in
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most countries, in aSpectrum managementprocess known asfrequency allocationorspectrum Write to us, your anonymity is our priority
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allocation. Radio propagation does not stop at national boundaries which is why governments
have sought to harmonise the allocation of RF bands and their standardization.

A number of bodies work on standards for frequency allocation, including:

International Telecommunication Union(ITU)

European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations(CEPT)
Inter-American Telecommunication Commission(CITEL)

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Radio frequency bands are divided into 3 broad categories: Enteryouremailaddress... Subscribe

Frequencies that are not usable for commercial purposes and are kept reserved for radio astronomy and
Defence forces.
Frequencies that are unlicensed and are open for personal or commercial use for free which includes
2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi, Bluetooth, cordless phones, etc.
Frequencies that are licenced by the government for purposes like telecommunication.

TELECOMMUNICATION FREQUENCY BAND

The frequency bands used for telecommunication worldwide follow an international convention
where the ITU has identied 3 distinct International telecommunication regions and each region India
A handy guide to frequency bands used for
telecommunication in India
has its own distinct set of frequency bands that it uses for telecom.
DTH SATELLITES IN INDIA

https://telecomtalk.info/frequencybandsusedindiatelecommunication/132738/ India 1/8

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A handy guide to Satellites used for
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In the early days the number of GSM bands were limited to just 3. This comprised 900 and 1800
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Within a few years tri-band capability was being built into every GSM mobile. We have come to
accept and value this universal connectivity. India has currently deployed operations or has
future plans to deploy telecom operations in a total of 8 radio frequency bands as of now. Ahead CATEGORIES

Bharti Airtel BSNL Reliance Jio

is a brief description of each of these bands and their current and future use.
MTNL Reliance T24
Tata Docomo Telenor India Videocon Telec
Band 1:
Vodafone India Idea Cellular 4G in India
Analysis Broad Band Editorial
This is a paired frequency band. The downlink frequency of this band lies in the 2100MHz region
Spectrum Auction DTH & Cable Mobile Phones
while the uplink frequency lies in the 1900MHz region. The total bandwidth is 60MHz X 2 of which
40MHz X 2 has been earmarked for Telecom operations while 20 MHz X 2 has been earmarked
for defence. This band is currently being used in India by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance, Tata,
Aircel, MTNL, BSNL for 3G services (HSPA) also Idea cellular plans to deploy FD-LTE on this band in
the future.

Band 3:

This is a paired frequency band. The downlink frequency of this band lies in the 1800MHz region
while the uplink frequency lies in the 1700MHz region. The total bandwidth is 75MHz X 2 of which
55MHz X 2 has been earmarked for Telecom operations while 20MHz X 2 has been earmarked for
Defence. This band is currently being used in India by by all operators especially newer ones like

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Rcom, Tata and Aircel to o er 2G voice and data services. Also Incumbents like Airtel, Vodafone
and Idea and new NEWS
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Jio have & DATA BROADBAND DTHthis
4G FD-LTE on & CABLE MOBILE
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select cities. CONTACT US search

Band 5:

This is a paired frequency band which is commonly referred to as the 850MHz band. The total
bandwidth is 20MHz X 2 of which 17.5MHz X 2 has been earmarked for telecom operations while
the remaining is used as inter operator guard bands. Additionally in the three circles of Assam,
Jammu&Kashmir and North East the government is considering allotment of 5MHz X 2 to
Defence, which brings down the amount available for telecom operations to 12.5MHz X 2 in these
circles. This band has traditionally been used for CDMA and EVDO services in India by operators
like Rcom, Tata, MTS and BSNL. This band has now been refarmed and auctioned and Reliance Jio
now holds technology neutral liberalised spectrum in this band Pan India, which it plans to use
for FD-LTE deployment through a spectrum sharing deal for the same with Rcom.

Band 7:

This is a paired frequency band. The downlink frequency of this band lies in the 2600MHz region
while the uplink frequency lies in the 2500MHz region. The total bandwidth is 70MHz X 2. This
band was exclusively allotted to BSNL in the 3 circles of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra
Pradesh. BSNL has surrendered all its spectrum holding in this band to the government for a
refund. This band is currently not being used by any operator in India.

Band 8:

This is a paired frequency band. The downlink frequency of this band lies in the 900MHz region
and the uplink frequency lies in the higher 850MHz region. The total bandwidth is 25MHz X 2 of
which 22.2MHz X 2 has been earmarked for telecommunication while 1.6MHz X 2 has been
earmarked for Indian railway and 1.2MHz X 2 has been earmarked for defence. This band is
currently being used by Incumbent operators Airtel, Vodafone, Idea for 2G voice and Data
services. Airtel and Idea have even launched or plan on launching 3G (HSPA) services on this band
in the metro circles where they own liberalised spectrum through auction.

Band 28:

This is a paired frequency band. The downlink frequency of this band lies in the upper 700MHz
region and uplink frequency lies in the lower 700MHz region. The total bandwidth is 45MHz X 2 of
which 35MHz X 2 has been earmarked for telecommunication while 10MHz X 2 has been
earmarked for defence. This band is proposed for FD-LTE deployment in India by the year 2018.
The spectrum in this band has been freed for telecom use in Metro cities and urban areas under
phase 1, 2 and 3 of digitisation of cable TV, the spectrum in this band in semi urban and rural
regions is still in use for terrestrial cable broadcasting and will be freed after the completion of
phase 4 of digitisation by the end of 2016.

Band 40:

This is an unpaired frequency band. Both the uplink and downlink portions of this band are
located in the same chunk of 2300MHz radio frequency. The total bandwidth is 100MHz of which
80MHz is earmarked for telecommunication while 20MHz is earmarked for defence. Spectrum in
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this band is held by operators like Reliance Jio, Airtel, Idea and Tikona. Airtel has already launched
inNEWS
TD-LTE on this band major VOICE
cities.& Reliance
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Jio has a Pan & CABLE MOBILE
TD-LTE & TABLETS
footprint CONTACT
on this US
band. search

Band 41:

This is an unpaired frequency band. Both uplink and downlink portions of this band are located in
the same chunk of 2500MHz and 2600MHz radio frequency. The total bandwidth is 194MHz of
which only 40MHz is earmarked for telecommunication while 154MHz is allocated to Department
of space (DoS) for satellite services. Spectrum in this band is held by Vodafone, Idea and state
owned BSNL. Vodafone and Idea are using this band to add capacity to their existing band 3 LTE
networks to compete with Airtel and Jio which have large amount of similar spectrum in band 40.

Band number Type Uplink frequency (MHz)Downlink frequency (MHz)Bandwidth for telecom (MHz)
1 Paired 1939-1979 2129-2169 40 X 2
3 Paired 1710-1765 1805-1860 55 X 2
5 Paired 824-844 869-889 17.5 X 2
7 Paired 2500-2570 2620-2690
8 Paired 890-915 935-960 22.2 X 2
28 Paired 713-748 768-803 35 X 2
40 Unpaired 2300-2400 80
41 Unpaired 2535-2555/2635-2655 40
For a similar description on DTH satellites, check out our Handy guide to satellites used for
broadcasting DTH signals in India.

Frequently asked questions:

Q1. What is the di erence between paired and unpaired frequency bands?

Ans. Paired frequency bands have uplink and downlink portions on physically separate frequency
bands, which is why LTE deployed on paired frequency band is called Frequency division
duplexing FDD while unpaired frequency bands have both uplink and downlink portions on the
same chunk of spectrum and are separated only by time of uplinking and downlinking, which is
why LTE deployed on unpaired frequency band is called Time division duplexing TDD. Bands 1
through 32 are paired while bands 33 to 44 are unpaired. Newer bands are dened and
numbered by the ITU from time to time.

Q2.What is the di erence between liberalised and non liberalised spectrum?

Ans.Prior to 2012, spectrum was linked to a telecom license, operators who applied for license in
a circle were granted a xed amount of startup spectrum, 4.4 MHz for GSM and 2.5 MHz for
CDMA services. This spectrum being linked to the license was non liberalised and could only be
used to provide those services and not for newer technologies like 3G HSPA and 4G LTE. From the
year 2012 DOT delinked spectrum from license and urged telecom operators to move to the
Unied license regime by paying a one time fee to the government which would permit them to
o er all voice and data services across all circles using any technology platform. The spectrum
auctioned since 2012 is thus liberalised and can be used for any technology including 2G GSM
CDMA/3G HSPA EvDO/4G FD-LTE TD-LTE.

Q3. What is carrier aggregation in terms of LTE-A and how does it a ect the data speeds of the
network?

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Ans.When operators bid for spectrum in the auction and win some, the government allocates the
orNEWS
spectrum in chunks blocksVOICE & DATAsizeBROADBAND
of xed DTH & CABLE
to the operators. While MOBILE
the DOT& TABLETS CONTACT
takes every US to
e ort search

ensure that all spectrum allocated to an operator within a band is contiguous (All spectrum
blocks adjacent to each other in a continuous manner), sometimes this is not feasible due to
some reason, also operators tend to pick spectrum across many di erent frequency bands.
Carrier aggregation is the technology platform which combines this fragmented spectrum holding
of an operator across bands to virtually make larger chunks of spectrum which adds to the
overall data carrying capacity. Carrier aggregation for LTE-A can be intra band like B40-B40 or
inter band like B3-B5.

We hope this article has been useful in clearing all your doubts regarding spectrum band
allocations in India. If you still have any queries kindly post them in the comments section below
and we will do our best to resolve them. Keep reading TT for the latest news in the Indian telecom
Industry.

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STORY FIRST PUBLISHED ON: March 22, 2015 at 2:28 pm

frequency bands telecommunication worldwide, frequency bands used in India for telecommunication

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REPORTED BY

Esmail Senior Sub-Editor

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144 Comments on "A handy guide to frequency bands used for telecommunication in India"

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SHan January 31, 2017 12:51 pm 12:51 PM

I have brought LG ESCAPE 3( unlocked version) from USA. IT Couldnt connect 3G at all and It
could only detect 4G in reliacne and reliacne JIO only. I am using Aiterl 4G enabled SIM but still
i could use only 2G, PLZ help me out to resolve this Issue.Thnk u.

Reply

Jimmy George C
https://telecomtalk.info/frequencybandsusedindiatelecommunication/132738/ 6/8
2/19/2017 AhandyguidetofrequencybandsusedfortelecommunicationinIndia
BREAKING December 16, 2016 8:49 am 8:49 AM

Excellent information
NEWS VOICE & DATA BROADBAND DTH & CABLE MOBILE & TABLETS CONTACT US search

Reply

Yash November 9, 2016 2:58 pm 2:58 PM

I have accidentally selected USA radio band by dailing a number *#*#4636#*#* since that time
I havent been getting any signal in my phone anybody can help to get back my previous Indian
band? If some one can pls explain that what do I need to do and how do I get back my
previous band.

Reply Hide Replies

Siddharth January 11, 2017 5:52 pm 5:52 PM

Buy a new phone, if you havent already. Why did you do this? Demonetisation e ect?

Reply

Yash November 9, 2016 2:47 pm 2:47 PM

I have selected USA radio band and just after that I havent been getting signal bar in my
phone anybody can help to get back my previous Indian band? Pls reply

Reply

Raj October 10, 2016 6:11 am 6:11 AM

Esmail

Can 30 MHz be used as single block or 2 x 15 or 10 + 20 Carrier Aggregation ?

Reply Hide Replies

Esmail October 10, 2016 7:51 pm 7:51 PM

10 + 20 carrier aggregation.

Reply

rocky July 20, 2016 10:38 pm 10:38 PM

is there any news of bsnls plan to launch 4g,when and in which circles

Reply

Rakesh June 27, 2016 2:52 pm 2:52 PM

Can someone clarify the unlicensed bands of India? Especially after the next Spectrum release
on the verge.

Reply Hide Replies

Esmail July 20, 2016 11:12 pm 11:12 PM

As of now only 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz are unlicensed. There was a proposal to delicense the
spectrum between 585-698 MHz as well but that was rejected by the government.

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dinesh May 29, 2016 4:06 am 4:06 AM

Will Motorola moto turbo support 4g in India? Plz clear

Reply Hide Replies

Sudhakar July 20, 2016 6:05 pm 6:05 PM

( comment removed )

Reply

pasha May 20, 2016 6:44 pm 6:44 PM

Dear friend

Could I know what frequency bands Vodafone n airtel use in India for 2g, 3g and 4g?
Thank you

Reply Hide Replies

Esmail June 5, 2016 2:55 pm 2:55 PM

Vodafone:
2G- 900/1800 MHz
3G- 2100 MHz
4G- 1800 MHz

Airtel:
2G- 900/1800 MHz
3G- 900/2100 MHz
4G- 1800/2300 MHz

Reply Hide Replies

Sudhakar July 20, 2016 6:07 pm 6:07 PM

Is airtel trying to illegally allot more spectrum to 4G by reducing the 2G 1800 MHz
blocks?.

Reply Hide Replies

Esmail July 20, 2016 11:15 pm 11:15 PM

There is nothing illegal about using 1800 MHz for 4G, if the operator owns
liberalised spectrum in that band, it is upto the sole discretion of the operator
whether to use it for 2G or 4G. If the spectrum is non liberalised it will be forced
to use it for 2G only.

Reply Hide Replies

Sudhakar August 9, 2016 5:38 am 5:38 AM

But 2G speed is reducing day by day know?.

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