More should be done to alleviate the strain being placed on Wi-Fi networks, one expert believes.
In a recent meeting, Jessica Rosenworcel from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said that the current Wi-Fi band, 2.4GHz, is becoming “mighty crowded”. She believes her organisation should act on a proposal it put forward in 2013 to free up another 195MHz from the 5GHz band.
At present, 555MHz of the 5GHz band is available for wireless devices, although the FCC has put regulations in place which govern how it can be used.
According to telecompaper.com, the US Department of Defence said last year that it no longer needs the lower end of the frequency and that it could be used for Wi-Fi instead. The spectrum was initially allocated to the military for telemetry use.
Ms Rosenworcel called on the FCC to make the most of the opportunity. She was quoted by benton.org as saying: “Let’s start by leaving behind the tired notion that we face a choice between licensed and unlicensed airwaves, because good spectrum policy requires both.
“Moreover, I think this kind of division is a simplistic relic from the past. And to help meet this demand for unlicensed services, we have a terrific near-term opportunity in the 5GHz band.”
Supporting the need for an increase in spectrum allocation, Cisco Systems believes that most internet traffic will be carried on Wi-Fi connections by 2017. It is also thought that Wi-Fi is worth around $220 billion to the US economy every year.
