Michael Calabrese of New America’s Open Know-how Institute informed Ars that 6 GHz and CBRS “are essentially the most susceptible non-federal bands for reallocation and public sale.” Whereas the spectrum for auctions is to come back from frequencies between 1.3 and 10.5 GHz, a lot of that spectrum can be off-limits both as a result of it is particularly excluded or as a result of it could be harder to reallocate.
“About half the spectrum in that vary is federal, after which the remaining has already been auctioned for mobile cellular use or is assigned to different essential customers equivalent to aviation and satellites,” mentioned Calabrese, who directs the Open Know-how Institute’s Wi-fi Future Venture.
One other issue cited by Calabrese is that the FCC, underneath Chairman Brendan Carr, is trying to make new spectrum accessible to low-Earth orbit satellites like these utilized by Elon Musk’s Starlink community. Carr can be “the main champion of 5G within the cellular business” and inclined to dedicate extra frequencies to cellular carriers, Calabrese mentioned.
Wi-Fi bottleneck
Feld mentioned the 6 GHz Wi-Fi spectrum could be a possible goal as a result of deployments within the band are simply beginning. Against this, the two.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands have been allotted to Wi-Fi for a very long time, are closely used, and modifying current units to cease utilizing components of the bands could be impractical.
Arguing that 6 GHz is essential for Wi-Fi’s future, Calabrese mentioned that “the bottleneck limiting house and enterprise broadband capability is now not the Web connection, however the high quality of the Wi-Fi. Most Wi-Fi nonetheless depends on a a lot smaller quantity of unlicensed spectrum at 2.4 and 5 GHz, which limits throughput to about 400Mbps and connects fewer units to the identical entry level.”
The Wi-Fi 6E normal provides assist for six GHz spectrum, and the in-development Wi-Fi 7 will take full benefit of the band, Calabrese mentioned. “By leveraging entry to your complete 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi 7 can practically double speeds, assist a whole bunch of units in a location, prioritize lag-sensitive functions like real-time video, and assist rising future apps equivalent to digital actuality and telepresence that can be used nearly fully indoors,” he mentioned.
