Three semiconductor and telecom equipment companies — Metanoia, Aethertek and TechPhosis — have formed a research alliance to advance 6G FR3 (upper mid-band) technology in India, ANI News has reported.

The partnership targets the 7.125 GHz to 24 GHz frequency range, which regulators and standards bodies across the world are evaluating as the workhorse band for sixth-generation mobile networks. The grouping brings together chip, RF and systems engineering expertise at a time when India is preparing commercial 6G spectrum allocation.

What is FR3 and why does it matter for 6G?

FR3 sits between the sub-6 GHz bands used for 5G coverage and the millimetre-wave frequencies already in commercial use for fixed wireless and hotspot capacity. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is studying the range as a candidate IMT-2030 band because it can deliver multi-gigabit throughput while still supporting reasonable cell radii and device form factors.

The band has emerged as the central compromise in 6G spectrum debates. Sub-6 GHz gives operators coverage but limits capacity, while 24 GHz and above delivers speed at the cost of poor propagation through walls and foliage. FR3, particularly the lower portion around 7-15 GHz, offers operators a chance to reuse existing tower grids while multiplying throughput by a factor of five to ten compared with mid-band 5G.

Operators in the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea have already conducted FR3 trials. The US Federal Communications Commission opened a proceeding on flexible-use licensing in the band, and European operators including Deutsche Telekom and Orange have run outdoor demonstrations. India's Department of Telecommunications is expected to weigh similar options as part of its next spectrum auction cycle.

Why an Indian alliance, and why now?

Indian operators including Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have signalled interest in locally developed 6G stack components, in line with New Delhi's Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) policy framework for the telecom sector. The policy, combined with production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes for telecom equipment, has pushed a number of smaller firms to build end-to-end capabilities.

India's open RAN (O-RAN) deployments, which now run into the hundreds of thousands of sites, have shown that local integrators can compete on radio units, but the baseband and higher-layer stack remain dominated by global suppliers such as Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and Qualcomm. A domestic FR3 alliance would attempt to close that gap in the next-generation air interface.

Where does India stand on 6G?

The government published its Bharat 6G Vision document in 2023, setting an ambition to launch 6G services by 2030 and to hold 10 percent of global 6G patents. The vision is anchored on India-specific use cases including rural broadband, precision agriculture and low-cost device manufacturing.

Trials in the 26 GHz millimetre band and upper mid-band spectrum are already under way through academic institutions including IIT Madras and IIT Hyderabad, with backing from the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI). India chaired the 6G vision group within the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity and has been active in ITU-R IMT-2030 preparatory studies.

What does the alliance need to prove?

The three companies will need to demonstrate that a home-grown FR3 stack can match the cost and performance of platforms from established global vendors. Spectrum access will be another gating factor. Without test licences in FR3 ranges, proof-of-concept work will rely on regulatory sandboxes or academic allocations, which tend to limit outdoor and mobility testing.

What comes next?

The alliance is expected to publish a reference architecture and proof-of-concept results over the next 12 to 18 months, with industry observers pointing to early commercial pilots in 2026-2027 if regulators move on FR3 allocations. Outcomes from the collaboration could feed into TSDSI submissions to the ITU-R IMT-2030 process, which is set to define the global 6G standard by 2030.