BLOG: The Lower 7 GHz Band: A Necessity for Wi-Fi and American Consumers

Posted on

In the spectrum provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), NTIA was tasked with studying three federal bands for possible reassignment to high powered cellular-only use, including the 7250-7400 MHz band. Tellingly, the OBBBA was silent on the adjacent band: 7125-7250 MHz – a spectrum band of enormous importance to any American family or business that uses Wi-Fi. As a coalition advocating for all of the country’s many users of unlicensed spectrum, WifiForward continues to encourage NTIA to study the 7125-7250 MHz band for unlicensed use. Here’s why.

Allocating the 7125-7250 MHz spectrum band to unlicensed use will give hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers and businesses faster and more reliable Wi-Fi connectivity – while allowing for efficient sharing with federal incumbents and promoting American manufacturing interests. 80% to 90% of Americans’ mobile smartphone data already travels over Wi-Fi, not cellular networks. And as Americans connect more and more devices to their home networks, more Wi-Fi bandwidth will be needed to keep up with demand.

We’ve already seen how Wi-Fi is an American success story through the full use of the unlicensed 6 GHz band. Just look at how the first Trump Administration’s 2020 decision to unlock the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use was a game-changer for American consumers and national security. The 6 GHz Wi-Fi band helped create 2 million jobs in 2023 alone, and this number is projected to reach nearly 8 million jobs by 2027 and more than 13.5 million jobs by 2032. The FCC’s 6 GHz decision also generated $870 billion in US economic value in just 2023-2024, and is projected to generate $1.2 trillion by 2027.

Furthermore, this decision secured America’s status as a world leader. The United States was the first country to make the entire 6 GHz band available for Wi-Fi, prioritizing innovation and revolutionizing the way Americans connect. Since then, nearly 70 countries have followed our lead and opened up some or all of the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use.

Consumers have been the clear winners of this 2020 decision. By opening up the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use, the FCC delivered consumers higher speeds and increased reliability.

Now, here’s what allocating the lower portion of the 7 GHz band for unlicensed will look like:

  • Wi-Fi is an American Success Story: Wi-Fi has become the backbone of connectivity, carrying up to 90% of smartphone data and powering 23.3 billion devices worldwide. The average U.S. household relies on 21 Wi-Fi connected devices. Its rapid evolution continues, with Wi-Fi 7 adoption setting records at 583 million devices globally. U.S. companies drive leadership in chip design, routers, smartphones, and emerging technologies like AR/VR and wearables.

 

  • Unleash the power of next-generation devices. By using spectrum contiguous to 6 GHz, a second radio would not be needed in devices accessing both 6 and 7 GHz bands, eliminating unnecessary costs to produce new Wi-Fi devices while enabling a fourth next-gen Wi-Fi 7channel that can support advanced applications at speeds up to 10 Gbps. This means more affordable Wi-Fi devices with expanded, high speed, efficient, and reliable access especially in dense networking environments.

 

  • Maximize taxpayer dollars by sharing with federal incumbents. Wi-Fi’s ability to safely share spectrum with federal incumbents allows the government to manage increasingly crowded airwaves and deliver a major boost to the economy at a low cost to taxpayers. Wi-Fi can be introduced into the 7 GHz band without moving federal incumbents, including systems vital to keeping our homeland safe.

 

  • Unlock opportunities for economic growth and jobs. Opening this band for Wi-Fi devices will improve consumer experiences through faster connections, unlock new opportunities for economic growth and jobs, enhance innovation and competition through mobile offloading, and support U.S. manufacturers. In fact, preserving the full 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi will generate $1.19 trillion in U.S. economic value by 2027.

 

Wi-Fi remains the clear workhorse of connectivity for American consumers. Allocating the 7125-7250 MHz band for unlicensed use benefits our economy, which is in the best interest of the American public.

###