Years from now, on your drive, your car might receive a warning about an accident or a dense fog ahead, not from other commuters but from cars ahead of you. This is possible through Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication, and India's telecom regulator is already formulating regulations for it.
On Thursday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a consultation paper on the regulatory framework for V2X—the technology that allows vehicles to wirelessly exchange real-time information with every relevant element of their environment: other vehicles (V2V), road infrastructure like signals and sensors (V2I), pedestrians carrying smartphones (V2P), and the broader mobile network (V2N).
The paper was released following a formal request back in 2025 from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
According to officially released data, V2X technology is set to run on a dedicated 5.9 GHz spectrum band. DoT has already agreed to allocate 30 MHz (5875–5905 MHz) for the initial deployment of C-V2X (Cellular-V2X)—the 5G-era standard—with an additional 20 MHz reserved for future Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) applications.
C-V2X uses direct, ultra-low-latency communication that works even without cellular coverage — critical for accident-prone rural and foggy stretches.
India records approximately 5 lakh road accidents and 1.8 lakh deaths annually, and V2X technology could potentially prevent up to 80 per cent of accidents caused by human error, as per studies.
TRAI has invited stakeholder comments to the V2X consultation paper by May 28, 2026 and counter-comments by June 11, 2026.
