Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The FIGHT Over 6 GHz WiFi”.
When Marconi invented the radio all the way back in the 1890s, I doubt that he foresaw just how much stuff would be flying through the airwaves less than a century and a half later I mean it’s gotten to the point where there are more Wi-Fi networks operating In the average apartment building, then there are FM radio stations to listen to in a given area. So it shouldn’t be surprising, then, that recently, the United States FCC decided to open up the 6 gigahertz band for use, which frees up another 1200 megahertz wide chunk of the spectrum to enable higher speeds and relieve some of that congestion and the kicker is that they Want to approve unlicensed and free use of that band, but here’s the thing as it turns out. The 6 gigahertz band hasn’t been just lying around waiting for just anyone to come along and use it. Large cell phone carriers in the u.s. actually use 6 gigahertz for backhaul, which is communication between points in their own system rather than directly to consumers and water and power utilities across the country have said that they also use 6 gigahertz for their own operations and they Don’T want a bunch of new traffic coming along and mucking it up.
However, this opposition to the plan from utilities and cell providers is being met on the other side by an assortment of very strange bedfellows, including everyone from Google to HP to Broadcom who’s known for manufacturing networking chips. So then, what’s in it for those guys well, the cell industry wants the FCC to auction off slices of the six gigahertz band so that they can bid on them and reserve them for their own use. So then, by comparison, obviously, all of these tech companies would much rather be able to use this piece of spectrum for their own gadgets without having to bid against heavy hitters like Verizon and AT .