The following statement is attributable to Bill Maguire, director of WifiForward’s Save our Wi-Fi campaign on the introduction of The Promoting Unlicensed Spectrum Act of 2015 (original release below): 

Today, Senator Schatz has introduced the The Promoting Unlicensed Spectrum Act of 2015, a move that would improve consumers’ access to the Internet, making more unlicensed spectrum available for technologies like Wi-Fi, which most of us use every day to get online. This bill reflects necessary Congressional leadership advancing balanced, evidence-based spectrum policies and is a heartening first step.

WifiForward studies have found that unlicensed spectrum generates $222 billion in economic value and contributed $6.7 billion to US GDP in 2013, is set to add 547.2 billion and 49.7 billion to GDP by 2017. Wi-Fi serves as a critical on-ramp to the Internet and making more unlicensed spectrum available for devices and services like Wi-Fi is imperative, as leaders at the FCC have publicly recognized. We look forward to the innovation, investment and speeds that more unlicensed spectrum will unleash.