WASHINGTON-The U.S. delegation at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva said Wednesday a tentative agreement was reached to earmark nearly 500 megahertz of additional spectrum at 5 GHz for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed broadband wireless technologies.
The accord, subject to final approval at the plenary meeting wrapping up WRC-03 early next month, apparently resolves a key issue raised by some parties about whether a chunk of new spectrum-the 5250-5350 MHz band-should be limited to indoor use. A global spectrum allocation will help keep manufacturing costs down.
The interim agreement, according to a U.S. delegation press release, “permits outdoor operation of radio local area networks in the band, while ‘requesting’ that countries take ‘appropriate measures’ that will result in a ‘predominant number of stations’ being operated indoors.”
Progress on unlicensed spectrum at WRC-03 complements efforts in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission to open more airwaves for unlicensed wireless technologies.
