ISED Consultation on the Technical and Policy Framework for Licence-Exempt Use in the 6 GHz Band

November 27, 2020 10:34

Following the FCC, ISED also has a consultation on the Technical and Policy Framework for Licence-Exempt Use in the 6 GHz Band.Wi-Fi is the most widely used Radio Local Area Network (RLAN) technology to provide high data rate wireless access over a local area. Wi-Fi enables low-cost Internet connectivity for Canadians on a wide range of licence-exempt consumer devices. It also serves a crucial function in support of commercial wireless service providers, who rely on it to offload traffic from their mobile cellular networks. According to a recent ABI Research forecast, the annual unit shipments of Wi-Fi-enabled devices are set to increase from 3.3 billion units in 2019 to more than 4.5 billion by 2024. In April 2020, WiFiForward published a United States (U.S.)-focused study where faster broadband speed from deploying Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band could contribute $13.25 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product

by 2025. The same study projected that the total economic value derived from a variety of economic contributors (e.g. broader IoT deployment, savings in wireless enterprise traffic) would increase by at least $153.76 billion between 2020 and 2025, by allowing low-power and very low-power Wi-Fi use in the 6 GHz band. For emerging applications and services that rely on ubiquitous high data rate and low latency, Wi-Fi will continue to play a fundamental and complementary role to 5G cellular connectivity. For example, the WiFiForward study forecasts that cellular operators will benefit with savings of $13.60 billion between 2020 and 2025, through offloading 5G-originated traffic to Wi-Fi devices. ISED is of the view that making the 6 GHz band available for RLAN use will offer proportionally similar economic benefits for Canada.

Source: ISED Website