Washington, D.C. – As Congress continues to debate budget reconciliation legislation, some have suggested that the upper 700 megahertz of the unlicensed 6 GHz band should be repurposed for licensed mobile services. A new study released today shows that this approach would cause significant economic losses over the next two years alone, forfeiting $2.11 trillion in U.S. economic value by 2027. 

Conducted by Telecom Advisory Services, the newest study builds on a report released earlier this month by expanding the analysis to not only include the negative economic impact to the 6 GHz band itself, but also the negative economic implications for the legacy Wi-Fi bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands) if the 6 GHz band is repurposed.

The new analysis makes clear that “every economic category suffers when the 6 GHz band is restricted” – from enterprise speed and latency benefits contracting, to Wi-Fi consumer benefits falling to reduced gains for rural broadband. Specifically:

• In just two years – from 2025 to 2027 – the economy would forfeit $2.11 trillion, equivalent to 72% of the baseline benefit.
• Economic losses would reach $850 billion by 2027, mirroring the commercial ramp-up of Wi-Fi 7 and spectrum-intensive enterprise applications.

“As the reconciliation bill continues to move through the Senate, it’s important that the full economic impact of proposals put forth are understood, especially when the resulting losses could be so significant in just two years’ time,” said WifiForward Executive Director Mary Brown. “This latest analysis makes clear that taking spectrum away from the public and repurposing it for licensed mobile carriers will have a significant and negative economic impact, including higher costs for American families and businesses, and it will put at risk the American innovation that was unleashed thanks to the FCC’s 2020 decision.”

Under the previous Trump Administration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted unanimously to make the United States the first country to allocate 6 GHz spectrum for unlicensed use to keep pace with Americans’ substantial and ever-growing demands for Wi-Fi and ensure “faster, more efficient broadband connections for the American people.”  This prescient decision has delivered real results for American households, consumers, and businesses. Reallocating the upper 700 MHz portion of the 6 GHz band so soon after the FCC’s 2020 decision would be unprecedented and would undermine the billions of dollars of American investments and consumer value made within its first five years.

Retaining the entire 6 GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi is not simply a spectrum management preference, it is an American business leadership and macroeconomic imperative. No other single telecommunications policy decision carries a comparable, near-term impact on national GDP and consumer benefit.

You can read the full report here.

Press Contact: media@wififorward.org

About WifiForward:

WifiForward is an ad hoc, broad-based group of companies, organizations and public sector institutions working to alleviate the Wi-Fi spectrum crunch and to support making Wi-Fi even better by finding more unlicensed spectrum.

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