Time To Submit Ideas on LTE-U/Wi-Fi Coexistence, Wireless Lawyer Says

Anyone with ideas how to best test whether moving more data traffic to LTE-unlicensed will interfere with Wi-Fi should speak up now, wrote wireless lawyer Mitchell Lazarus on Fletcher Heald's blog. Qualcomm's special temporary authority to test coexistence between LTE-U and Wi-Fi in Oklahoma and North Carolina (see 1601290064), rather than settle the issue, will likely "lead to fresh controversy over whether the test conditions were realistic and what the results mean," he said. The move by carriers to push more data into LTE-U "puts the FCC in a bind" because it doesn't have legal authority to stop that, he said. "But from a practical standpoint, Wi-Fi has become so important to the economy, and such a major convenience in people's lives, that to let LTE-U degrade it would be unthinkable." Lazarus provided links for contacting Qualcomm and the Wi-Fi Alliance, which is helping develop the Qualcomm test plan, and for filing comments in docket 15-105.