Wi-Fi 7 Innovation Is Now Deploying to Consumers

On November 25, Charter Communications announced that it has started deploying Wi-Fi 7 routers. Charter is apparently the first major broadband Internet service provider to launch an exclusively designed Wi-Fi 7 technology system for both its residential and business subscribers. In September, AT&T announced that it plans to introduce a new Wi-Fi 7-capable gateway before the end of the year. Also, it is reported that there are dozens of Wi-Fi 7-certified non-exclusive devices in the market as of 2024.

Wi-Fi 7 is an innovative upgrade over prior generations of Wi-Fi technology. It is reported that Wi-Fi 7 enables wider channels for increased bandwidth, improved reliability, and better speeds. In 2025, look for the deployment of Wi-Fi 7 routers, TVs, cell phones, and other Wi-Fi 7-compatible devices to improve network performance and capabilities for American broadband subscribers – starting with Charter's subscribers. 

 

Wi-Fi 7 operates in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands. Fortunately, there is a large amount of spectrum dedicated to unlicensed wireless usage, such as Wi-Fi. The FCC's 6 GHz Order (2020) cleared 1200 MHZ of spectrum for unlicensed use, which quadrupled the total amount of spectrum available for unlicensed devices, most notably Wi-Fi routers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices that use Wi-Fi. 

FCC Takes Action to Unleash Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7

On November 2, 2022, the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) announced that it had conditionally approved 13 Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) systems designed to enable shared use of the 6 GHz band between licensed and unlicensed devices.

By preventing harmful interference to incumbent licensed microwave links, AFC will make available 1200 MHz of high-value, mid-band spectrum to Wi-Fi 6E devices operating at standard power levels – which, in turn, will deliver to consumers increasingly faster speeds, lower latency, and better coverage.

Source: Wi-Fi Alliance®

The consumer popularity of Wi-Fi is both immense and steadily growing. Consequently, existing unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands long has been subject to overcrowding. More capacity, particularly contiguous swaths able to support wider Wi-Fi channels – and, thus, faster speeds – was needed.

In response, the FCC in April 2020 adopted a Report and Order opening the 6 GHz band to flexible unlicensed use, including Wi-Fi.

A December 28, 2021, post to the FSF Blog reported that the D.C. Circuit largely upheld that agency action in AT&T Services, Inc. v. FCC.

The following day, FSF President Randolph May in a Press Release heralded that decision "because of the way the court broadly viewed the exercise of the Commission's core spectrum management responsibilities" and for "emphasizing the considerable degree of deference to be accorded to the FCC regarding technical spectrum management matters."

Integral to the Commission's conclusion that unlicensed devices can operate at standard power levels in the 6 GHz band both indoors and outdoors without causing harmful interference to incumbent licensed users is the role to be played by the AFC spectrum use coordination system.

(By contrast, the agency determined that indoor-only devices could operate safely at lower power levels without AFC. As a result, such devices are available today in the retail marketplace as well as from broadband Internet service providers.)

By paving the way for testing to begin, OET's conditional approval of 13 AFC database systems represents a noteworthy step forward in wireless networking – not only Wi-Fi 6E, but also Wi-Fi 7, the under-development successor specification recently demonstrated for Commissioners and agency staff by Intel Corporation and Broadcom Inc.

As those companies described in a slide deck filed in ET Docket 18-295 and GN Docket No. 17-183, Wi-Fi 7 expands network capacity by a factor of 5, latency by up to a factor of 100, and further improves coverage.

Report Estimates Annual Economic Value of Devices Using Unlicensed Spectrum

On February 1, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) released a report titled "Unlicensed Spectrum and the U.S. Economy." This interesting report focuses on the economic value of sales of devices using unlicensed spectrum. According to CTA's estimate, the incremental sales value (ISV) of unlicensed devices at retail is $95.8 billion per year, or $79.8 billion at wholesale.

CTA defines ISV as the value attributable to the unlicensed spectrum access capability of devices. For some devices, CTA assigns 100% of their value to those devices' unlicensed spectrum capability. But for other devices, CTA assigns only a portion of their value the unlicensed aspect. For instance, CTA attributes 30% of the value of smartphones to unlicensed spectrum capability, so it determined that the $63 billion in revenues generated by smartphone sales in the U.S. in 2020 amounted to almost $19 billion for smartphone ISV for that year. In its report, CTA identified the top six categories of devices generating significant revenues on account of unlicensed spectrum capability as smartphones, laptops, wireless earbuds, smart TVs, and tablets. 

CTA's report acknowledges that the indirect benefits of unlicensed spectrum to the U.S. economy are much greater still. Yet the report helpfully brings into focus the variety of devices that utilize unlicensed spectrum. 

Free State Foundation scholars have emphasized the importance of making spectrum available for commercial and other personal uses on both unlicensed and licensed terms. For a recent publication on spectrum policy see the December 2021 Perspectives from FSF Scholars by President Randolph May and I titled "Constitutional Considerations for Proper Spectrum Policy: A Preference for Private Property Rights and Market Competition."