Saving Lives Beats Pokemon Go Wi-Fi, House Transportation Top Democrat Says of 5.9 GHz

House Transportation Committee ranking member Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., urged FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to get their priorities straight on how to best balance the 5.9 GHz band. “While I understand the desire for more unlicensed WiFi spectrum, the desire for better Pokemon Go play cannot be compared to the 35,000 motor vehicle deaths every year,” DeFazio told them in a letter dated Wednesday. Intelligent transportation stakeholders hold the spectrum, but many want testing to see if the band can be shared for unlicensed purposes. DeFazio cited the many motor vehicle accidents and deaths and said connected vehicles “would likely save many of these lives. There is no other public interest need for this spectrum that rises to this level of importance.” He said any delay in the dedicated short-range communications mandates isn't in the public interest and means “lives unnecessarily lost,” countering a recent petition requesting delay on account of cybersecurity and privacy protections. He said there’s time to handle those “before broad DSRC deployment.”