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Waiting for godot play4/2/2023 ![]() ![]() Even if someone – I guess using tax money – proposed to cover the cost of moving these users out of this band, to what band would they relocate these incumbents? Such a band does not exist. This is not just unfeasible, it is literally impossible and will never happen. The first option is to kick out the incumbents from this band. ![]() The question is then how they are going to do that. Of course they want to use this band for mobile broadband services. And although this is entirely unclear from their side, we can make some guesses. Let’s discuss instead WHAT they intend to do with it. To keep it simple let’s skip for now WHY the mobile industry wants the top half of the 6 GHz band for itself and is lobbying regulators to that effect – although it is a perfectly reasonable question as they’re still struggling to work out how to ‘monetize’ their much-prized 5G networks (remember how some of us argued that 5G is a nothing-burger? Turns out we were right…) The two do not adversely affect each other – and the socio-economic benefits of sharing spectrum are enormous. In other words: What the FCC devised fully protects incumbents while opening up for loads of connectivity capacity at jaw-dropping speeds with Wi-Fi. The only reason why it is possible to use Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band is because the FCC and the Wi-Fi industry together devised a scheme to protect incumbents by limiting operating power levels and by introducing a clever method for outdoor and standard power operation known as AFC. It is being used by utilities (microwave links) and satellite service providers. Meanwhile – starting three years ago this April – the FCC has released the full 6 GHz band all the way up to 7.2 GHz to Wi-Fi and since then many other countries have followed suit – although not all. This – in the first instance – seems odd. The top half of the 6 GHz band is not at all empty but for some reason, the mobile (cellular) community wants to lay claim to this chunk of spectrum that others are using. The battle for the airwaves – specifically the top half of the 6 GHz band – is heating up as the we approach the ITU’s World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 (WRC-23) to be held in November of this year. We’ll spare you the legalese and cut to the chase. But it is also critical because the future of connectivity lies buried precisely there. Spectrum politics is murky to a lot of people – even for seasoned professionals – and no wonder: The world of regulation is a complex web of multiple layers of government and international organisations peppered with proceedings written in a mix of legalese and (for the most part) tech talk complete with rafts of acronyms. Similarly, some regulators appear to be waiting for the mobile industry to come up with a miracle technology that would somehow work in the upper 6 GHz band. They hold out for Godot in the hope he will guide them towards more meaning in their lives – yet he never arrives. In Samual Beckett’s famous play “Waiting for Godot” two men await the arrival of the mysterious ‘Godot’. By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman ![]()
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