CTIA, NCTA Clash on FCC Proposal for Wi-Fi in 6 GHz Band
With the FCC expected in April to tackle order on the 6 GHz band, CTIA remains committed to licensed use of part of the band, Jen Oberhausen, director-regulatory affairs, said during a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council teleconference Thursday. CTIA is fighting what some think is a losing battle to get the FCC to reconsider a plan to open all the spectrum for unlicensed use.
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CTIA agrees the U.S. needs more channels for the next generation of Wi-Fi, Oberhausen said. But with 1,200 MHz available, “that’s a lot of spectrum,” she said: “We think it’s a great opportunity to enable new unlicensed and licensed services.” CTIA wants the FCC to “hit pause” on the upper half so the regulator can “fully consider all of the options on the table, can take stock of how the market develops for Wi-Fi,” she said.
NCTA wants to have Wi-Fi throughout 6 GHz, said Danielle Pineres, associate general counsel. The 6 GHz band “is the future home for Wi-Fi, both today and into the future,” she said. Wi-Fi advocates are moving forward on Wi-Fi 6, but “we don’t have contiguous 160 MHz channels available in the Wi-Fi band today. To really get the full benefits of the speeds that Wi-Fi 6 can enable, we need access” to more spectrum and “6 GHz is really the place to do that,” the lawyer said. Other generations of Wi-Fi may make use of even broader channels, she said.
Clint Odom, National Urban League senior vice president-policy and advocacy, said no one should forget, regardless of whether licensed or unlicensed, people have to pay for broadband. “This is a brave new world that we’re entering into,” Odum said. “The abstractions of whether we use 1,200 MHz or something less … is really not something that communities of color and people who are having trouble affording broadband are really focused on,” he said: “They’re really focused on who can get a solution to me fastest and who provide a solution that’s affordable.”
Doug Hyslop, CTIA vice president-technology and spectrum planning, blogged Thursday that 6 GHz proponents offer contradictory data to justify the need for sharing the entire band. “Cable, Google and Facebook are demanding all 1200 megahertz in the 6 GHz band for free,” he said: “That is twice the international consensus, and is more than four C-Band auctions worth of spectrum. It’s a lot.”
In response Friday, NCTA referred us to its ex parte filed Thursday. It points to a study that “up to 1600 megahertz of additional unlicensed spectrum is needed by 2025 to support the tremendous amounts of data expected to traverse these networks.” The Internet Association didn't comment.