FCC Allows 5GHz Spectrum to be Used as Unlicensed Wi-Fi

Need Wi-Fi speeds to be much faster than what you get now? There’s a good chance we can see that happen!!

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said that they’ve announced plans to free up 195 MHz of spectrum in the 5GHz Band for ‘unlicensed use’. However this topic is something dripping with controversy as this frequency is used by many government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Even though these agencies have criticized the plan to free up 195MHz in the 5GHz band, FCC’s chairman Julius Genachowski has said that Wi-Fi congestion is a real and growing problem.

“Like licensed spectrum, demand for unlicensed spectrum threatens to outpace supply. The core challenge is the dramatically increased use of wireless devices, which require spectrum.

This additional spectrum will increase speeds and alleviate Wi-Fi congestion at major hubs, such as airports, convention centers and large conference gatherings. In addition, this would also increase speed and capacity for Wi-Fi in the home where multiple users and devices are often on the network at the same time. Because the 5GHz band is already used for other purposes by both federal and non-federal users, the effort will require significant consultation with stakeholders to enable non-interfering shared use of the spectrum. But consultation can’t be an excuse for inaction or delay.”

However, in another corner, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are currently working on a project to resolve the spectrum dispute between government agencies and companies by working on a modified framework to allow spectrum sharing.

The agency added,”Balancing national security requirements of radars and military networks with the growing bandwidth demands of commercial wireless data networks calls for innovative approaches to managing spectrum access.”

As of now, devices operate on the 555MHz spectrum in the 5GHz band which is usually used in short/local range.

On the same subject, the FCC also filed a formal approval for allowing wireless booster devices that are very useful in buildings, stadiums, airports, hospitals or tunnels where you wouldn’t normally get strong signals on your devices.

Source: Network World