FCC to free up additional Wi-Fi spectrum to boost speeds

The Federal Communications Commission announced Wednesday plans to free up 195 megahertz of wireless spectrum in the 5 gigahertz band to help increase Wi-Fi speeds and alleviate congestion in high-traffic areas.

The agency hopes that the new initiative will result in speed increases of up to 35 percent. The spectrum expansion is also of importance to home users, as freeing up the unlicensed spectrum block - the largest chunk made available since 2003 - will also help people using unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum to stream high-definition video on their personal devices.

Genachowski said that when the FCC first made unlicensed spectrum available for Wi-Fi nearly 30 years ago, "no one knew the potential it held." Since then the unlicensed spectrum has been used to fuel several industries and product categories, including cordless telephones, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

"We all know the frustration of Wi-Fi congestion at conferences and airports,"Genachowski said. "Today, the FCC is moving to bring increased speed and capacity to Wi-Fi networks by increasing the amount of unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi."

Read more -here-

• FTC fines Razer for misrepresenting COVID masks as N95s
• FCC fines Verizon, AT&T other major carriers nearly $200 million for sharing customer data
• Federal regulators accuse Amazon executives of deleting messages
• FCC restores net neutrality rules
• US moves to force ByteDance to sell TikTok
• Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses can now play Apple Music