Pai Says Benefits of 5.9 GHz for Wi-Fi Will Come Quickly
The potential for the 5.9 GHz band to give Wi-Fi and auto safety a major boost as the pandemic continues has been proven, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and other speakers said during a WifiForward virtual event Wednesday. The event came the same day the FCC posted its draft order, unveiled by Pai Tuesday (see 2010270065).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The agency made 5.9 GHz available for wireless ISPs on a temporary basis in May, and “the results are just incredible,” Pai said. Amplex Internet increased throughput 50%, and other providers had similar numbers, he said. “This is a hint for the future we can secure for American consumers if we get it right, and … freeing up that 45 MHz of spectrum in 5.9 gets it right.”
Pai said he has seen cellular vehicle-to-everything in the field and in trials . “Enabling cars to communicate with each other, and to everything on the road from pedestrians to light poles, I think is going to be tremendous for automotive safety,” he said: Dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) “just hasn’t done the job,” and C-V2X will.
The FCC addresses the interference concerns raised by NTIA (see 2010260024), Pai said. In the unlicensed-national information infrastructure-3 band, just below 5.9 GHz, “we have accommodated DOD uses,” which are primary for the federal radiolocation service there, he said: “Because of the protocols that we have established, there’s actually been very little interference.” The “same kind of accommodation can be reached” at 5.9 GHz, he said. Because of its location next to the U-NII-3 band, it “punches above its weight” and would create a 160 MHz channel for Wi-Fi, he said.
“There’s a rising tide for Wi-Fi,” and other nations are following the FCC’s lead, Pai said. South Korea is moving forward on unlicensed use of 6 GHz similar to the U.S., and Brazil is “seriously considering doing the same,” he said.
The FCC made the 5.9 GHz band available to WISPs “absolutely, amazingly quickly,” said Amplex President Mark Radabaugh. “I have never seen anything move that fast in the spectrum world.” WISPs drafted requests for special temporary authority, which were granted “very quickly,” he said. The band is “utterly, completely adjacent to the existing spectrum we already have,” he said. WISP radios were retuned, he said: “Within two weeks, we were on the air, using existing equipment, no truck rolls, over-the-air software upgrades.”
The U.S. shouldn’t have to rely on Wi-Fi hot spots for millions of Americans without broadband, but “that’s where we are now,” said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. So hot spots “need to be able to support 50, 100 people who are using these same high-bandwidth applications.” On auto industry complaints about DSRC: “My actual telemedicine saves more lives than your imaginary technology,” Feld said: “For all of the hyperbolic claims that the auto industry has made, DSRC is a lousy anti-collisions technology.” It is “old, out of date, subject to serious cybersecurity concerns,” he said.
Wi-Fi access is “more important than ever before as Americans work and learn and access telehealth services and more, all from our homes,” said Danielle Pineres, NCTA associate general counsel. Cable broadband providers report downstream peak traffic increased 20.1% and upstream 37.1% since March 1, before the pandemic started, she said. “We need wide-bandwidth Wi-Fi channels to keep up with consumer demand.” The 6 GHz band will take longer to bring online, and sharing will also be easier than at 6 GHz, with fewer restrictions, she said.