The PlayStation 5 Pro went on sale in select markets on Thursday. While customers in regions such as the US, UK, EU and Japan can purchase the PS5 Pro from a participating retailer or direct.playstation.com, the updated console is currently unavailable in India. On Friday, Sony confirmed that the PS5 Pro has not hit the market and will not appear in the near future due to interference in the telecommunications spectrum in the country.
Why PS5 Pro is not available in India
The PS5 Pro supports Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be), which uses the 6GHz spectrum band, which has yet to be allocated in India. Now, Sony has given official information about the availability of the console in India.
“PS5 Pro will not be available in certain countries (which currently includes India) where the 6 GHz wireless band used in IEEE 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) is not yet permitted,” the company said in an official statement on the slaughter house
The 6GHz spectrum is contested between tech firms and telecom operators in the country, with the former seeking to allocate it for Wi-Fi and the latter wanting the same for 5G and 6G services. According to a Financial Express report last month, the Indian government is likely to reserve a portion of the 6GHz spectrum for telecom companies to expand 5G and 6G services in the country. The 6 GHz band includes frequencies in the 5925-7125 MHz range.
While this regulatory hurdle is preventing the PS5 launch in India and is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, several countries have dedicated the entire 6GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance has called on the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to set aside the entire 6GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi use, according to a report in Capacity Media on Friday.
The PS5 Pro was announced in September and went on sale in select markets on November 7. The console comes with upgraded hardware compared to the PS5, featuring improved RDNA graphics with 16.7 teraflops of GPU computing performance. The console also has twice the memory of the PS5 and features advanced ray tracing and Sony’s new AI upscaling technology. The console is priced at $699.99 (Rs. 58,750 approx).