The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), which represent the manufacturers and suppliers of high-tech communications networks, filed comments with the FCC advocating an expansion of unlicensed access to the 5 GHz Band on a technology-neutral basis.
TIA noted that commercial wireless networks are already offloading 47 percent of all traffic to fixed wireline networks and that offloading is projected to grow to 66 percent by 2017. The next generation of Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11ac, allows a significant increase in data rates by empowering wider channel bandwidths than prior Wi-Fi standards, and is designed to take maximum advantage of the large contiguous 5 GHz band that would be created in the United States by designation of the 5350-5470 MHz and 5850-5925 MHz bands for “Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure” (U-NII) use.
TIA President Grant Seiffert commented, “America is experiencing exploding demand for wireless data connectivity that cannot possibly be satisfied by licensed spectrum alone. Consumers and businesses — today’s society as a whole —depend on their mobile devices, and need access everywhere. Of the 326 million connections to U.S. mobile networks, 174 million consisted of smartphones, laptops, tablets or modems.”
Seiffert continued, “By making available, on a technology-neutral basis, the large swath of contiguous spectrum at 5 GHz available, the FCC can help provide the high capacity throughput that is needed to support advanced applications, as well as optimizing a more efficient channel arrangement.”
“TIA supports allowing U-NII use of additional 5 GHz band spectrum under the technology-neutral approach could provide capacity for data offload by heterogeneous networks, particularly in urban regions, airports, stadiums and other area where congestion is a growing concern,” Seiffert said. “Such expansion, however, must be accomplished in a manner that affords suitable protections for incumbents.”
