WifiForward Releases Economic Analysis Outlining $222 Billion in Value Added to the U.S. Economy as a Result of Innovation Unleashed by Unlicensed Spectrum

Washington, D.C. – A coalition of companies, organizations and public sector institutions today announced the launch of a new organization, WifiForward, which is calling for policymakers to unleash unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi and other uses, enabling economic growth, creating new jobs and spurring innovation nationwide. Members include the American Library Association, Best Buy, the ARRIS Group, Comcast, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), Google, the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM), Time Warner Cable and Microsoft, among others.

In the United States, more Internet traffic is carried over Wi-Fi than any other path. Wi-Fi runs on unlicensed spectrum, parts of the radio frequencies that anyone can use as long as the technical rules established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are followed. Recent analyses indicate that Wi-Fi in our homes, businesses, schools and libraries is becoming congested by a deluge of data from more devices, applications and services connecting to the Internet without wires. Indeed, Cisco predicts that by 2017, Wi-Fi will handle a majority of all data consumers’ access from the Internet.
There are upcoming opportunities for the FCC to make more of this vital resource available: in an auction of TV spectrum, in a proceeding to open the 3.5 GHz spectrum for wireless broadband, and in an ongoing proceeding in the 5 GHz band.

Also today, WifiForward released a new economic study that finds unlicensed spectrum generated $222 billion in value to the U.S. economy in 2013 and contributed $6.7 billion to U.S. GDP. The new study provides three general conclusions about the impact of unlicensed spectrum, detailing the ways in which it makes wireline broadband and cellular networks more effective, serves as a platform for innovative services and new technologies, and expands consumer choice.

The WifiForward coalition will marshal support to: 1) protect and strengthen existing unlicensed spectrum designations; 2) free up new spectrum for unlicensed use at a variety of frequencies, including low, medium, and high frequency bands; and 3) establish investment-friendly, transparent and predictable unlicensed rules that encourage growth and deployment.

For more information on WifiForward including a full list of coalition members, visit the website at www.wififorward.org.

 

Here are a few quotes from our members:

Julie Kearney, CEA’s Vice President, Regulatory Affairs.
“Unlicensed spectrum is essential to innovation. As we saw at the 2014 International CES®, more products than ever rely on Wi-Fi and unlicensed spectrum – from smartphones and tablets to health and fitness devices, even connected homes and personal drones. Consumers deserve access to their information and entertainment where and when they want it. Unlicensed spectrum not only underlies the delivery of that data on demand, but also fuels our innovation economy.”

Paul Mitchell, General Manager – Technology Policy at Microsoft
“The miracle of Wi-Fi has enabled millions of people to connect, learn, explore, and grow – and brought billions in economic return to our economy. We need to ensure that our access to spectrum for Wi-Fi – supporting our growing innovation economy – keeps pace with our evolving needs, and we must work together to rapidly enable and deploy new solutions for efficient access to spectrum.”

Mike Roudi, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development for Time Warner Cable
“Wi-Fi traffic grows nearly 70 percent each year and adds tens of billions of dollars each year to the U.S. economy. As a leader in deploying Wi-Fi networks, Time Warner Cable is pleased to join WifiForward as part of our commitment to help people stay connected no matter where they are. We look forward to working with the government to unleash unlicensed spectrum to further meet consumer demand and add more jobs to our economy.”

Charles Cheevers, CTO of CPE Solutions, ARRIS
“Wi-Fi is integral to our way of life—how we work, communicate, and experience entertainment. Our connected world is becoming more and more about freedom: to do what we want, when we want, where we want. Wi-Fi is the link that allows us to experience, on multiple devices, the world’s library of content and to share with others. This connectivity not only drives innovation and improves entertainment, but it can save lives with immediate access to support resources, shape our society, and fuel our businesses. Because of this, ARRIS is committed to working within the Standards bodies to improve the Wi-Fi standard and to harness Wi-Fi and other technologies to invent the future.”

Matt Starr, Director of Public Policy, CompTIA
“Wi-Fi access has become a key ingredient of small business innovation, and we urge the FCC to free up more unlicensed spectrum to enable the development of new products and services. We look forward to working with our partners in WifiForward to help the FCC move forward as quickly as possible.”