Wi-Fi Report Predicts Spectrum Shortfall in Under 10 Years

Wifi

A new report for Wi-Fi Alliance issued by Quotient Associates predicts that by the year 2025, the United States will require significantly more unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum in order to support expected peak Wi-Fi usage. The report also indicates that this coming Wi-Fi crunch could be even more substantial if new, novel internet applications enter the marketplace that we currently can’t account for.

The report’s forecasts include details on how significant the spectrum shortcoming will be, pointing to a need for between 500 MHz and 1 GHz of new unlicensed spectrum by 2025.

The Wi-Fi Alliance report also indicates that the spectrum needed can’t be just any spectrum – it has to be contiguous spectrum because contiguous channels of at least 160 MHz are needed to support high bandwidth applications and conserve device battery life. “To do otherwise,” the report says, “would be to risk restricting the growth of Wi-Fi and the economic benefits with which it is widely associated.”

The report also considers how burdensome sharing rules like Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) impact the use of Wi-Fi spectrum and the looming spectrum shortfall. DFS requires Wi-Fi devices to vacate certain spectrum bands if they detect government radar operations.  Rather than incorporate this expensive feature or risk disrupting the end-user experience, Wi-Fi devices often avoid DFS bands altogether. As the chart above reveals, the Wi-Fi spectrum shortfall is even bigger when you assume that Wi-Fi devices use only 30 percent of the DFS-burdened Wi-Fi spectrum available today. Moreover, the report also assumes that none of the new spectrum designated to overcome the shortfall is constrained by DFS—if equally burdensome technical rules are imposed on new unlicensed bands, even more new spectrum would be required.

We’ve written in the past about the incredible importance of supporting more unlicensed spectrum usable by Wi-Fi. In fact, just a few weeks ago we called for better sharing of unlicensed spectrum with auto manufacturers. There, we wrote about the significance of the 5.9 GHz band, which rests right next to an existing Wi-Fi band that millions of consumers are already using, making it an ideal solution for more contiguous unlicensed spectrum, as called for in the report.

We also wrote about other benefits of the 5.9 GHz band. Specifically, because of its proximity to already utilized spectrum, internet providers would be able to offer access quickly and with lower rollout costs. It would also bring super-fast gigabit Wi-Fi to more American consumers as this is the only unlicensed band on the horizon to expand access to the latest wide-channel Wi-Fi technology.

More U.S. Internet traffic travels over Wi-Fi than mobile and wired internet combined. This use will only increase over time, which is why it’s so important that we address the Wi-Fi spectrum crunch by designating sufficient unlicensed spectrum to meet growing demand for Wi-Fi and accommodate next-generation unlicensed technologies.