British communications regulator Ofcom is asking the public for their views on whether the 5GHz frequency band should be made freely available for public use or auctioned to commercial operators.
Ofcom’s responsibility is to ensure radio spectrum is used efficiently. As wireless demand grows, managing spectrum becomes increasingly important to prevent interference, particularly in bands shared by many devices.
The familiar 2.4GHz band, used by most Wi‑Fi devices, is becoming congested. That congestion can lead to slower speeds and reduced reliability as competing signals interfere with each other.
Opening up the underused 5GHz band could ease this congestion. However, 5GHz has different propagation characteristics: it does not penetrate walls and solid objects as well as 2.4GHz. That makes it excellent for high-speed coverage in small areas but less effective for whole-home or large-building range without additional access points.
Shifting many short-range devices—such as car key fobs, baby monitors, and game controllers—to 5GHz could free up 2.4GHz for devices that need greater range, while improving overall speed and reliability across networks.
With growing interest in the Internet of Things (IoT), Ofcom wants to make more spectrum available to support increasing machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. This consultation comes ahead of the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2015, where an additional 300MHz of spectrum is expected to be discussed.
Another development on Ofcom’s agenda is wider deployment of Hotspot 2.0 technology. Expected to gain traction by mid‑2014, Hotspot 2.0 enables public access points to provide seamless authentication and roaming. Under business models similar to the BT‑FON partnership, mobile operators can pay hotspot owners when their subscribers switch onto those Wi‑Fi networks, encouraging the growth of shared public access points.
Wider adoption of Hotspot 2.0 and expanded use of the 5GHz band could dramatically increase the number of high‑speed public connections, reducing coverage black spots. Ideally, users would then have reliable access to either LTE mobile data or Wi‑Fi almost everywhere they go.
Careful spectrum allocation and policy design are essential to achieve these benefits. As part of its consultation, Ofcom is inviting members of the public and innovators to request small allocations for experimental transmissions, encouraging independent research and development in these bands.
For more information, Ofcom has published a summary titled “Spectrum Sharing” that outlines the proposals and how to respond to the consultation.
What do you think about allocating 5GHz for Wi‑Fi? Should it be opened for public use, or reserved for commercial auction?