The FCC got it right this time

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gets a lot of bad press.  Sometimes there are good reasons for that but much of the time there are not really any good reasons.  As the nation's lead spectrum regulator their primary job is to balance all needs and factors. They are supposed to arrive at decisions that do the best for the greatest number of people.

Recently mobile carriers led by AT&T have been lobbying hard against a plan by the FCC to allow the 6GHz band to be used without a license. This means that consumers will be able to use wireless routers designed to take advantage of that band in their homes without headache or hassle.

 

FCC research shows risks are minimal

AT&T's position has been that their company and the other carrier companies would prefer to have exclusive access to a portion of the 6GHz band in order to minimize the interference of their existing network of cell towers. The towers rely on the 6GHz band to help smartphones maintain their connection to the internet.

Based on the FCC's research such risks are minimal. The agency did not feel a great need to cater to big business for what amounts to a few highly improbable edge cases.

Recently the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in support of the FCC's position.  AT&T and the other carriers had no immediate comment on the ruling, but this must be seen as a big win for US consumers.  Ultimately it will mean faster wireless connection speeds which will translate to greater convenience for end-users.

 

WiFi is about to get faster

That’s great news: faster internet is constantly in demand, especially as we consume more bandwidth-demanding apps, games, and videos with our laptops and phones. But the next generation of WiFi, known as WiFi 6, isn’t just a simple speed boost. Its impact will be more nuanced, and we’re likely to see its benefits more and more over time.

This is less of a one-time speed increase and more of a future-facing upgrade designed to make sure our speeds don’t grind to a halt a few years down the road. WiFi 6 is just starting to arrive this year, and there’s a good chance it’ll be inside your next phone or laptop. Here’s what you should expect once it arrives.

 

What is WiFi 6?

The Verge in a recent article said:

WiFi 6 is the next generation of WiFi. It’ll still do the same basic thing — connect you to the internet — just with a bunch of additional technologies to make that happen more efficiently, speeding up connections in the process.

So how fast is WiFi 6? The short but incomplete answer: 9.6 Gbps. That’s up from 3.5 Gbps on WiFi 5.

The real answer: both of those speeds are theoretical maximums that you’re unlikely to ever reach in real-world Wi-Fi use. And even if you could reach those speeds, it’s not clear that you’d need them. The typical download speed in the US is just 72 Mbps or less than 1 percent of the theoretical maximum speed.

But the fact that WiFi 6 has a much higher theoretical speed limit than its predecessor is still important. That 9.6 Gbps doesn’t have to go to a single computer. It can be split up across a whole network of devices. That means more potential speed for each device.

 

My perspective

Kudos to the FCC for fighting the good fight and for the Court of Appeals for not trying to second guess the FCC and their expertise.  Although there may be a few isolated cases where existing cellphone operations are nominally impacted, the weight of the evidence suggests that the Court made the right call here.

 

Look. Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's WiFi 6!

 


By Denis Wilson

Cybersecurity Expert, Small Business Technology Consultant, Managed Services Provider, Managed IT Support

Thanks for reading this post. I always take into mind that your time and attention are precious. And these posts need to be timely, to the point, and short.

For more tips on thriving with small business technology, check out the other blog posts at DWPIA Blogs. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

I am also a published author and speaker on cloud computing, work-at-home, and cybersecurity. I work extensively with business and professional associations to provide free small business technology education programs.

 

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