Wi-Fi Advocates Offer New Technical Study Supporting Further 6 GHz Changes

NCTA and other Wi-Fi advocates told aides to the three Republican FCC commissioners an “updated and expanded” technical analysis by CableLabs shows the agency can safely make further changes to its 6 GHz rules. “We discussed the importance of authorizing low power indoor unlicensed operations in the band at 8 dBm/MHz power spectral density to ensure that new 6 GHz Wi-Fi devices can efficiently utilize the significant new bandwidth to deliver next-generation multi-gigabit Wi-Fi with the whole-home coverage and throughput Wi-Fi consumers experience and expect today,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295: “We appreciate the Commission’s need to take a conservative approach in unleashing expansive new Wi-Fi bandwidth, given the important incumbents operating in the band, and have completed additional, more comprehensive technical work to respond to its concerns and conclusively show that the Commission can create substantially more value and significantly reduce consumer costs for Wi-Fi without compromising critical incumbent protections.” Representatives of CableLabs, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Enterprises and Midcontinent Communications participated in the calls. The same parties spoke with the aides about the importance of an FCC vote reallocating part of the 5.9 GHz band for Wi-Fi, said a filing in docket 19-138. The spectrum is “key to delivering gigabit Wi-Fi and much-needed unlicensed capacity to American consumers in the very near term,” they said.