India’s phone companies have shot off a letter to telecom secretary Anshu Prakash, saying a proposal of the telecom department – suggested by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) – to slash the transmission power of mobile base stations operating in the coveted 26 GHz spectrum band will jack up 5G deployment costs by at least 16 times and make the ultra-fast wireless broadband service unaffordable in the country.The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio Infocomm -- has called on the government to scrap the proposal and take suitable steps to ensure the Indian delegation participating at WRC-2019 supports the commercial deployment of 5G mobile services in the 26 GHz band – considered most efficient worldwide for 5G -- since the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) also has sufficient quantum of these premium airwaves.