Unanimous FCC Agrees to Explore Opening More 5 GHz Spectrum for Wi-Fi
The FCC approved by unanimous vote Wednesday an NPRM that could add another 195 MHz to the spectrum open for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use in the 5 GHz band. The notice also proposes changes to FCC rules and equipment authorization procedures for devices used in the band. FCC officials told us more harmonization of the 5 GHz band could be helpful to industry and consumers.
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FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski had said at CES in January the agency would launch the notice, and the order was hailed by CEA President Gary Shapiro, who said many products used by consumers today “increasingly rely on Wi-Fi.” FCC officials said they fielded relatively few meeting requests on the NPRM in the buildup to the meeting because it was viewed by industry as “just an NPRM.”
"This proposal today is based upon a tremendous amount of engineering work done by the engineers at our agency,” Genachowski said during a press conference. “We don’t now see any reason why we can’t put 195 new megahertz of spectrum for unlicensed [use] on the market and do it in a way that’s compatible with other existing uses.” The hunt is on for more spectrum bands for licensed and unlicensed use, he said. “This is largely a good news story,” he said. “The reason we're all struggling with this is the U.S. is leading the world in mobile.”
Many questions remain about the specific bands being studied. Among them, the Department of Transportation is already studying use of the 5850-5925 MHz band for a Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) backbone, to help prevent collisions on the roads (CD Jan 16 p1). On Tuesday, NTIA said the FCC should keep in mind various federal users of that band and a second, 5350-5470 MHz, being examined for unlicensed use (CD Feb 20 p8).
But NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling welcomed the NPRM Wednesday. “I am pleased that the FCC is … addressing in this proceeding key technical and enforcement issues in other 5 GHz band segments, including those in which interference problems have arisen and to which additional Federal operations could be relocated from other bands,” Strickling said in a statement.
Last year’s spectrum law required the FCC to “begin a proceeding” within a year looking at the use of unlicensed devices in just the 5350-5470 MHz band. The FCC is going a step further by also looking at the 5850-5925 MHz band, which Congress directed NTIA to study.
"We were not obligated to go this far, [last year’s] spectrum act only required that we commence a proceeding on opening up 120 MHz, but taking this step just makes sense,” said Commissioner Ajit Pai. “More spectrum will allow higher-speed, higher-capacity connections and will mean less congestion in apartment buildings and coffee shops, libraries and offices. For all these reasons, putting these bands to better commercial use could have tremendous benefits.”
Commissioners agreed putting the spectrum in play won’t be easy. “Launching this proceeding is just the beginning, of course, and we have a lot of work ahead us,” said Commissioner Robert McDowell. “Federal and non-federal primary users are prevalent throughout the 5 GHz band -- both in the bands where unlicensed use is already permitted, and in the 195 megahertz of spectrum we hope to open to such use.”
Finding ways to share the spectrum between government and commercial users could take a long time, said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “So I think it is necessary to start identifying ways to accelerate this process by incentivizing federal authorities to be more efficient with spectrum right now,” she said. “To do this, we must look for ways that federal users can realize value from using spectrum efficiently instead of only seeing loss from its commercial reallocation. These incentives need not be purely financial. And the rewards do not have to come directly from the spectrum rights being released. Instead, the incentives can come from benefits in appropriations, budgeting, or through structured use of synthetic currency, as proposed by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.”
"In opening this new proceeding, the FCC will conduct a rigorous and technical examination of whether Wi-Fi technologies can successfully use spectrum that is not in use today without causing harmful interference to existing, or future, radio systems that operate in the same frequency block,” said Mary Brown, Cisco director-government affairs. “This is of critical importance to U.S. consumers and businesses because Wi-Fi usage is simply exploding due to the widespread adoption of smartphones, tablets and laptops."