Unlicensed spectrum touches everyone’s life, FCC Commissioner Jessica...
Unlicensed spectrum touches everyone’s life, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Friday, in remarks to Wi-Fi Forward, a group pressing for greater unlicensed use of the 5 GHz band. Rosenworcel noted estimates that residential Wi-Fi contributes $16-$37 billion to the U.S.…
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economy every year. “It might have been the shiny new tablet or laptop you used to go online with Wi-Fi this morning,” Rosenworcel said. “Or maybe it was the old cordless phone you dusted off to make a quick call. It could have been the baby monitor you used overnight, or the television remote control you took in hand to turn on the news after you woke. Or perhaps it was the remote control you pressed to get out of the garage for your commute to work. It could have been the traffic application you checked on your smartphone before hitting the road. And it could have been the errand you ran at the store along the way, where RFID sensors help keep what you want on shelves and what you need in stock.” “Good spectrum policy” dictates that the U.S. allow for unlicensed and licensed spectrum to flourish, she said. Rosenworcel noted that she had just attended the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “I was able to speak to representatives of the wireless industry from across the globe,” she said. “I got a good look at the future -- and I saw wireless technologies that amaze. Cars that warn you even before they break down. Wearables that monitor your health down to the microsecond. Systems that monitor crops and predict problems with livestock. These devices do not rely on a single spectrum band to function. Instead, they overcome spectral and physical challenges by moving from frequency to frequency, sometimes on spectrum that is licensed and sometimes on spectrum that is unlicensed.” Rosenworcel said she is supportive of an FCC order, teed up for the March 31 commission meeting, that would allow unlicensed use of the 5.1 GHz band, also known as the Unlicensed-National Information Infrastructure-1 (U-NII-1) band, harmonized with rules in place for other 5 GHz spectrum. “We can take the flexible Wi-Fi rules that have already been the script for an unlicensed success story in the 5.725-5.825 GHz band and expand them to the 5.15-5.25 GHz band,” she said. “If we do, we could effectively double unlicensed bandwidth in the 5 GHz band overnight. That will mean more unlicensed service -- and less congestion on licensed wireless networks."