Outdoor Wi-Fi Power Level Decisions a WRC-19 Disappointment, Koh Tells TPI

Big U.S. accomplishments at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference include getting various millimeter wave bands identified for 5G, rules allowing coordination of geostationary and non-geostationary orbit satellites in the V band, and setting up a regulatory framework for NGSO mega constellations, said WRC-19 U.S. Ambassador Grace Koh in a Technology Policy Institute podcast released Thursday. Koh said a disappointment was failure to get the world to go along with higher power usage for outdoor Wi-Fi. She said Russia, China and Europe raised climate change issues in discussions about 5G use in the 24 GHz band and possible impacts to weather satellites, with those regions championing stringent protection values for those scientific services. Ultimately, the out-of-band emission power level adopted was "a political decision [but still] a good outcome," splitting the difference between what the various parties were advocating, she said.