Weekly News: 6GHz Wi-Fi is coming soon
April 26, 2020
1. 6GHz Wi-Fi is coming soon
2. Wi-Fi Alliance delivers more value from Wi-Fi in 6 GHz
3. FCC approves rural 5G fund, 6GHz rules
4. 6GHz Wi-Fi access could boost speeds and generate $183 billion by 2025
5. China to deploy 500,000 5G base stations this year
6GHz Wi-Fi is coming soon
In a few months, there’s going to be a lot more Wi-Fi to go around. The Federal Communications Commission voted to open up a plot of spectrum in the 6GHz band for unlicensed use — the same regulatory go-ahead that lets your router broadcast over the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. That means there are now more open airwaves — a lot more — that routers can use to broadcast Wi-Fi signals. Once the new spectrum is officially opened for business later this year, that should translate to faster, more reliable connections from the next generation of devices.
This is the biggest spectrum addition since the FCC cleared the way for Wi-Fi in 1989, so it’s a huge deal. The new spectrum basically quadruples the amount of space available for routers and other devices, so it will mean a lot more bandwidth and a lot less interference for any device that can take advantage of it.
“This is the most monumental decision around Wi-Fi spectrum in its history, in the 20 years we’ve been around,” Kevin Robinson, marketing leader for the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry-backed group that oversees the implementation of Wi-Fi, said ahead of the vote.
Devices are expected to start supporting 6GHz Wi-Fi by the end of 2020, so its implementation isn’t far away. When it arrives, expect to see it branded under the name “Wi-Fi 6E.”
Read more.
Wi-Fi Alliance delivers more value from Wi-Fi in 6 GHz
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made a historic decision to make 1200 megahertz of unlicensed spectrum in 6 GHz available for Wi-Fi® – a monumental ruling securing Wi-Fi innovation for decades to come. The FCC is the first regulatory body to take the courageous step of making 6 GHz available for unlicensed use, bringing an indispensable spectrum resource to increase Wi-Fi’s economic contributions. 6 GHz will pave the way for faster, higher-capacity, and lower latency Wi-Fi devices and networks.
Wi-Fi Alliance® is extending Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ into 6 GHz to ensure Wi-Fi users can quickly benefit from additional capacity, wider channels, and less congested spectrum. Certification for Wi-Fi 6E – the brand name for Wi-Fi 6 devices operating in 6 GHz – will be available in early 2021. Wi-Fi Alliance has been working to prepare interoperability certification as soon as Wi-Fi 6E devices enter the market so 6 GHz benefits can reach consumers, device manufacturers, and service providers more quickly. The Wi-Fi industry has coalesced around certification in an unprecedented way to rapidly deliver the program to market and enable worldwide interoperability of Wi-Fi 6E devices as additional countries make 6 GHz spectrum available.
“By making 6 GHz available for unlicensed use, the FCC has secured the future of Wi-Fi. 6 GHz access is a seminal development for connectivity and provides Wi-Fi more capacity to deliver groundbreaking use cases and to unlock novel new Wi-Fi applications,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. “Today’s global climate highlights how important Wi-Fi is in connectivity and productivity, and new Wi-Fi 6E solutions will further increase Wi-Fi’s standing.”
Read more.
FCC approves rural 5G fund, 6GHz rules
US regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) advanced a proposal to establish a $9 billion fund for rural 5G deployments, asking stakeholders to comment on how the pot should be distributed.
First unveiled in December 2019, the draft plan approved in a vote yesterday (23 April) includes two distribution options: one would allocate a majority of funds through an auction in 2021 using existing mobile broadband coverage data to identify areas in need; the second would delay the auction until 2023 to allow collection of more accurate coverage details.
Ahead of the vote, Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks argued the proposal presented a false choice between distributing the money quickly or accurately.
Rosenworcel said “we need to do both”, with Starks adding it would be “bad policy” to make long-term funding decisions without accurate maps.
However, FCC chairman Ajit Pai contended “we cannot pretend there is no trade-off between precision and speed”.
On a call with journalists, he explained the agency needs additional funding from Congress before it can begin work on new maps. Even then, he noted agency staff estimated it would take 18-to-24 months to collect, analyse and verify the data needed for their development.
The FCC opened a public consultation on the merits of each auction approach.
6GHz
In another high-profile decision, commisioners approved new rules opening the entire 6GHz band for unlicensed use, freeing up 1200MHz of spectrum for the next generation of Wi-Fi.
While the move drew praise from the likes of the Wi-Fi Alliance, Wireless Broadband Alliance, Microsoft and Broadcom; it sparked ire among operator groups including CTIA, which hoped to secure part of the band for licensed use.
Read more.
6GHz Wi-Fi access could boost speeds and generate $183 billion by 2025
Wi-Fi currently sends its signals in the 2.4 and 5GHz bands — but a new FCC proposal seeks to expand unlicensed Wi-Fi use into the much wider 6GHz band. Doing so would open up more than 1,200MHz of new bandwidth for next-gen, Wi-Fi 6E devices, up from a total of 500MHz from the 5GHz band. With room for seven new 160MHz channels — and with no interference from previous-gen devices at all — the 6GHz band could potentially serve as a multilane superhighway for the latest Wi-Fi devices, all of them using Wi-Fi 6, the newest, fastest and most efficient version of Wi-Fi.
Now, 10 days ahead of the FCC’s vote, an industry-funded study concludes that the move has the potential to generate more than $180 billion in US revenue over the next 5 years, among other benefits.
Released Monday, the report was funded by WifiForward, an industry advocacy group whose membership includes Google, Microsoft, Comcast, Charter, Broadcom, Arris and others. It was put together by Dr. Raul Katz, director of business strategy research at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information and president of Telecom Advisory Services, LLC. Its key takeaways on the potential impact of the FCC’s move include:
The addition of $106 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025 due to increased broadband speeds, accelerated deployment of the Internet of Things, and expanded market access for augmented and virtual reality applications.
A producer surplus of $69 billion due to enterprise wireless traffic savings and the sales of Wi-Fi and AR/VR equipment.
Consumer surplus of $8 billion from increased broadband speeds.
That adds up to a total of $183.44 billion added to the US economy by 2025. You can read the full report for yourself here, but here are a couple of highlights from the data.
Read more.
China to deploy 500,000 5G base stations this year
China carriers will deploy a total of 500,000 5G base stations this year, Chinese press reported, citing information provided by the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
The increase in 5G infrastructure has the main aim of boosting the digital economy in China, according to the report.
By the end of March, Chinese operators had already installed 198,000 5G base stations and had 50 million 5G users, the Chinese government said said.
“5G, as an important engine of the digital economy, is a key new infrastructure to realize the interconnection of all things and devices,” Wen Ku, a MIIT spokesman reportedly said.
“It has an important role in steadily investing, promoting consumption and helping upgrades in the face of the huge impact of the pandemic,” Wen added.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, 5G applications have been adopted in the sectors such as the “internet of vehicles”, the Industrial Internet and remote medical treatment. Applications like robots, touch-less sterilization, work-at-home and online education have become reality with 5G, the MIIT said.
The Chinese government also highlighted that further 5G deployments would stabilize investment, enhance value-chain development and deepen synergies between telecommunications and other industries.
China has already approved 96 5G smartphone models, which compares with 39 models by the end of last year.
Earlier this week, China Mobile, the world’s largest operators in terms of subscribers, said it has added 29.17 million 5G subscribers in the first quarter of 2020. The carrier said it ended March with a total of 31.72 million 5G subscribers, compared to 2.55 million 5G customers at the end of last year.
In a new phase of its 5G program, China Mobile is aiming to acquire over 232,000 5G base stations as it looks to extend coverage to 28 regions across China.
The Chinese carrier has already completed the first phase of its 5G network deployment.
China Mobile had already deployed nearly 50,000 5G base stations across the country as of the end of last year and currently provides 5G technology in 50 cities across China.
China Unicom said it will work with China Telecom to deploy 250,000 5G base stations across the country by the end of the third quarter.
In the first half of the year, the two operators seek to build 100,000 5G base stations in 47 prefectures and cities.
As of February 20, China Unicom had installed 64,000 5G base stations across the country.
Read more.