Use It or Lose It: Good Spectrum Policy

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In the world of Wi-Fi, we’ve seen a number of developments in both the 5.9 and 6 GHz bands, and while we’ve most recently covered the 6 GHz band, we’re also following 5.9 GHz just as closely.

If you’re here and scratching your head on what 5.9 is about, or just can’t remember all the plays in the epic story of this piece of spectrum to date, we’re here to save you with a short Twitter thread of major “milestones” in this saga of unlicensed vs. unused auto communications spectrum.

The thread includes a few tweets that’ll get you pointed in the right direction, but also make sure to peruse the WifiForward website for our past coverage of the matter. And of course, we’ve presented this issue to our bank of knowledgeable industry experts for their thoughts in FrequencyPulse.

Our official question was, Last year, the FCC voted unanimously to split the 5.9 GHz band between connected cars and unlicensed uses like Wi-Fi. What was the significance of this decision?

Read on for their insights and sign up to receive the next Frequency Pulse newsletter.

Kristian Stout, ICLE, Director of Innovation Policy:

I’m not sure we will know the significance, practically speaking, until there has been enough investment and deployment. On a theoretical or policy level, I think the implication is that we recognize that scarce spectrum needs to be put to use. And the FCC’s willingness to do more to get more spectrum into use is a good sign of the direction of things. 

Bartlett Cleland, Innovation Economy Institute, Executive Director:

The vote ended one part of the government capture and un/misuse of a scarce and valuable resource. The Commission’s compromise supports automotive safety innovation and delivered the unlicensed wireless broadband spectrum needed to support critical communications at hospitals, ports, rail yards, airports, homes, and offices.

Rick Chessen, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, Senior Vice President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs and Chief Legal Officer:

The FCC’s 5.9 GHz decision opened the greatly underutilized lower 45 megahertz of the 5.9 GHz band to indoor unlicensed use. That small swath of unlicensed spectrum is particularly critical for Wi-Fi because, when joined with the widely used Wi-Fi band next door, it now creates a new 160 MHz-wide channel that could be accessed in the newest generation of Wi-Fi. It will be using some existing Wi-Fi equipment with a software or firmware upgrade, quickly enabling gigabit Wi-Fi speeds and a broad range of other use cases.

Now it’s your turn: tweet us or email us with your take on balanced spectrum policy to join this conversation. We might feature thoughtful submissions right here in a future piece.

If you’re new, catch up on everything FrequencyPulse thus far. If you know someone who might appreciate learning about Wi-Fi and unlicensed spectrum, have them sign up for FrequencyPulse here!