DoT Clears Spectrum Hurdles for Vehicle Safety Tech
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has released two notifications within a single day, removing licensing requirements for spectrum bands related to automotive radar and vehicle-to-everything (V2X or V2I) communication, facilitating the regulatory progress for advanced road safety technology in India.
Telecom operators such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea opposed distinct service authorisation for Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, especially when these communications could utilize existing licensed telecom networks (through cellular networks or localized roadside infrastructure set up for intelligent transport and road-safety applications).
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The initial notification frees short-range automotive radar systems functioning in the 77-81 GHz band from licensing obligations. These radar devices serve as the sensors for the increasingly prevalent Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) functionalities like collision prevention, blind-spot detection, adaptive cruise control, and automated parking, operating by emitting radio waves that bounce off nearby objects to ascertain their distance, speed, and location.
“A short-range automotive radar system installed on a vehicle and operating in the 77–81 GHz frequency band, shall be permitted without assignment of radio frequency, on non-interference, non-protection and non-exclusive basis; no license shall be required for possession of such short-range automotive radar system by any person or its sale or hire by any dealer”, according to the DoT.
With the updated regulations, manufacturers, dealers, and vehicle owners will be exempt from needing separate spectrum licenses to install, sell, or hold such systems, as long as the equipment adheres to defined technical criteria, including a maximum average power of 50 dBm (decibel-milliwatts) and peak power of 55 dBm EIRP, across a 4 GHz emission bandwidth.
The DoT released a concurrent notification for on-board units facilitating Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) communication within the 5875-5905 MHz band (or 5.875-5.925 GHz band), where radar enables a vehicle to perceive its close environment; this technology permits it to exchange real-time information regarding speed, location, direction, and road conditions with other vehicles, traffic signals, and the wider network infrastructure.
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The notification also eliminates licensing obligations for these units, provided they adhere to power limits of 23 dBm/MHz spectral density and a peak of 33 dBm EIRP.
Both also necessitate a one-time type approval through a shared DoT portal, with producers needing distinct approvals for each equipment model unless an identical type has already been approved and released.
Combined, the two announcements tackle the two essential layers of connected-vehicle technology: sensing through radar and communication through V2X, eliminating what would typically have been individual spectrum-licensing obstacles for automakers aiming to implement both systems in cars sold in India.
DoT and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) collaborated to remove licenses for these frequencies or spectrum bands, enabling V2V and V2X communications to reduce road accidents nationwide.
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“Road safety is a shared responsibility and citizen participation is critical to reducing fatalities on our roads...Our biggest problem is changing public behaviour and enforcing traffic laws,” he notes.
During a recent event, Nitin Gadkari, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways, stated that India experiences approximately five lakh road accidents and 1.80 lakh deaths annually.
In 2024, the fatalities from road accidents in India increased by 2.3 percent to more than 1.77 lakh, leading to 485 deaths daily; thus, systems like V2X and V2V are crucial for the nation, he states.