Tech advocacy groups came out in favor of the Wi-Fi Innovation Act last week, a bill urging the FCC to explore the feasibility of opening up spectrum at the higher end of the 5GHz band (5850-5925) for unlicensed Wi-Fi use. A letter sent to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune and ranking member Bill Nelson urged quick passage and adoption of the bill, which was re-introduced earlier this year by Sens. Marco Rubio, R.-Fla., and Cory Booker, D-N.J.
While it has already earned wide support among the tech community, cable companies and the wireless industry, the signatories of this letter include some non-tech representatives including the American Library Association and the nonprofit Public Knowledge. The 11 organizations hope to keep the bill front and center in the minds of the Senate, with a simple core case on the bill’s behalf:
The 5 GHz frequency band is well-positioned to connect our devices in densely populated, potentially congested urban areas and in stadiums, workplaces, campuses, and other places with high wireless traffic today. As the FCC and Congress have recognized, the next step is for the FCC to open the 5.9 GHz portion of the band — so that consumers, businesses, libraries and schools will realize the full potential of “Gigabit Wi-Fi”.
The bill directs the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to research whether or not Wi-Fi can coexist with the existing uses of the spectrum. Were the bill to pass, the NTIA would have six months to issue the plan for testing and another 15 to conduct the test and gather information.
With mobile phone use exploding and wireless data traffic growing at high double-digit percentages, the possibility of “spectrum crunch” is on the minds of the telecom industry. It prompted an auction of spectrum earlier this year, which facilitated the sale of spectrum for broadband use. President Obama has set a goal of freeing up 500 megahertz of spectrum by 2020.
But the Wi-Fi Innovation Act doesn’t concern spectrum alone. Section 3 of the bill would also examine unlicensed spectrum and Wi-Fi use in low-income neighborhoods. Although 65 percent of the country has home broadband access, among households with incomes less than $25,000, that number declines sharply: 65 percent do not have broadband access, according to a report by the Social Science Research Council.
The prognosis for the bill doesn’t look good: GovTrack gives it a 9 percent chance of getting past committee, and a 3 percent chance of being enacted. With a public-spirited mission of expanding Internet access, wide-ranging support from tech and telecom, and bi-partisan sponsors like Rubio and Booker, it’s a wonder any opposition exists at all — but it does. Automakers and their partners argue that there could be possible interference with car safety systems, as the spectrum the bill seeks to test is shared with intelligent transportation systems used by automotive companies.
Their critique? That the bill would invite Congress into a process it is best left out of: “Experts from the automotive, Wi-Fi and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) industries are working together to explore whether a spectrum sharing technology can be developed to allow Wi-Fi devices to operate in the same 5.9 GHz band set aside by the FCC for ITS safety systems without delaying time-critical communications needed to prevent crashes. This collaborative process should continue without Congressionally-imposed deadlines, restrictive parameters or political pressure that creates regulatory uncertainty and could delay bringing these life-saving crash prevention technologies to consumers,” according to the High Tech Transportation Association.
This is a bill — and a debate — that should be paid attention to, especially as concerns about bandwidth rise alongside increasing rates of internet and mobile data usage.
