It finally happened! After 2 years of webinars, WifiForward hosted its first in-person event with the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) on Thursday, March 3, entitled “From Garage Door Openers to Wi-Fi: The Value of Unlicensed Spectrum.” The event featured keynotes from Reps. Bob Latta (OH-5) and Jerry McNerney (CA-9) and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.
Additionally, we had a panel of industry experts — Microsoft’s Paula Boyd, Cisco’s Mary Brown and Broadcom’s Robert Hoffman — who discussed the economic and social benefits of opening the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use.
“From Garage Door Openers to Wi-Fi: The Value of Unlicensed Spectrum,” co-hosted by CTA and WifiForward.
The event focused broadly on the value of unlicensed spectrum while highlighting CTA’s recently released report, but each participant expounded on the value in their own way. Check out some of the best quotes from the event:
On the importance of unlicensed spectrum:
- “Unlicensed spectrum drives the US economy. Think about what would have happened if we didn’t have it during the pandemic.” – Rep. Bob Latta
- “Think where [we] were 10 years and five years ago, and where we are today. We have a great reliance on unlicensed technology…and that’s the future. It’s a necessity and everything revolves around it. All revolves around one thing – if we don’t have that spectrum out there it’s useless. It’s our private sector that leads the way and we have Congress to help foster it. The US needs to be a leader… [it] needs to be developed and used here to keep America moving forward.” – Rep. Bob Latta
- “The value of unlicensed spectrum is absolutely undeniable!” – Rep. Jerry McNerney
Rep. Bob Latta (OH-5) giving his keynote.
Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-9) speaking to attendees.
On the benefits of utilizing the 6 GHz band for unlicensed spectrum:
- “Part of what the [6 GHz] spectrum is going to be able to do is, you have existing unlicensed bands that are congested, and it means with the spectrum coming online, it will ease some of that congestion…We also have 5G coming online, and this will be a piece that will support those applications.” – Paula Boyd, Microsoft
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr speaking on spectrum authority.
Left to right: J. David Grossman, CTA; Paula Boyd, Microsoft; Mary Brown, Cisco Systems; Robert Hoffman, Broadcom
On the FCC’s 2020 decision to open the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use:
- “I want to congratulate the DC court and the FCC for their work in opening up the 5.9 and 6 GHz portions of that spectrum, without which we wouldn’t have been able to do in the last couple of years… We can’t rest there. We have to continue to push the Commission to open up more portions of the spectrum for unlicensed use, and that will continue to push innovation.” – Rep. Jerry McNerney
- “At the FCC, we’ve tried to do our part to make sure there is plenty of this spectrum out there for America’s innovators to do what they do best. We issued a lot of decisions the last few years to try to free up more spectrum. Probably the biggest one we did was the 6 GHz band, where we freed up 1,200 MHz of spectrum, really an unprecedented amount of unlicensed spectrum.” – Cmr. Brendan Carr
- “The decision affirming the FCC’s decision on 6 GHz was completely expected…I didn’t see any real opening for anybody overturning it.” – Mary Brown, Cisco Systems
- “An important part of the DC Circuit’s decision was not just affirming the result and affirming the standard by which the FCC made its decision, but the whole process, itself, was in effect, on trial. And as Commissioner Carr pointed out, that was critical in the ruling because it gets to the Congressional intent on what the FCC is. It affirmed the role of the FCC and the expertise of the FCC. I think it further accelerated the move. We’re going to see more devices coming online.” – Robert Hoffman, Broadcom
Check out more photos of everyone here.