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FCC Moves To Boost Wireless Speeds

Posted by samzenpus on from the greased-lightning dept.

coondoggie writes "The Federal Communications Commission said it wants to make up to 195 megahertz of additional spectrum in the 5 GHz band available to unlicensed wireless devices with the idea that such a move would enable Wi-Fi equipment that can offer faster speeds of one gigabit per second or more, increase overall capacity, and reduce congestion. 'Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure devices today operate in 555 megahertz of spectrum in the 5 GHz band, and are used for short range, high speed wireless connections including Wi-Fi enabled local area networks and fixed outdoor broadband transceivers used by wireless Internet service providers to connect smart phones, tablets and laptops to the broadband network,' the FCC stated."

5 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. We know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It was discussed a month ago.

  2. It helps, but... by Guspaz · · Score: 2

    It will help, but don't expect this any time soon. Because no existing device (probably 802.11ac or earlier) will support the new spectrum, we're not going to see much advantages to the new spectrum until whatever comes after 802.11ac (unless they try to brand it as a "v2" thing)

    1. Re:It helps, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually that's untrue. The FCC is putting a process in place to certify existing devices for the new frequencies. Ubiquiti, Cambium, Mikrotik, and others will have a streamlined approval process to go through, and then the new bands will be unlocked via a firmware change. This is no different from the DDFS/U-NII approval process they went through awhile back.

  3. Re:Yeah, and? by icebike · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wait, you challenge his 2.4ghz range assertion with a 5ghz range example?

    What can be done in clear air with line of sight means nothing. The fact that 5ghz has very little building penetration is well known. Its great for single rooms (like restaurants or in the cubical-sphere of an office, but even around the house it can be problematic when trying to penetrate some walls.

    This is great for apartment dwellers, because 5ghz means less interference from neighbors. But in a typical two story home it gets marginal.

    What is needed is small cheap, low powered routers that you can put on each floor or maybe each room. 5Ghz might be just the ticket for that.

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    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  4. Re:FCC Moves To Boost Wireless Speeds by PhrstBrn · · Score: 2

    If you have 20 people on that 150mbps wireless network pushing around data, you're lucky if you can get 5mbps out of it. In reality, it'll be a lot slower. With gigabit you can push around data a lot faster with lots of clients.

    The other use case is wireless bridges with directional antennas, although you'd probably use 60Ghz for that.