Senate GOP budget bill has little-noticed provision that could hurt your Wi-Fi

Summary

For non-federal spectrum, Cruz's plan says that "not less than 300 megahertz" must be auctioned. This must include at least 100 MHz from 3.98 to 4.2 GHz, but the plan doesn't specify where the rest of the 300 MHz or more would be taken from. Because of the "not less than" language, more than 200 MHz could be taken from sources that include the current Wi-Fi and CBRS allocations. Calabrese said he worries that the amount taken from Wi-Fi could be significantly higher than 200 MHz, as "the mobile industry wants much more." Big venues need better Wi-Fi Calabrese said he expects the biggest impact of reducing Wi-Fi's use of 6 GHz at "busy venues such as schools, airports, sporting arenas, shopping malls, all the different places where many people gather together and try to get on the same access points and unlicensed spectrum through Wi-Fi." Calabrese said that enterprise use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies would also be affected. He gave the example of Amazon using indoor Wi-Fi to operate thousands of robots in fulfillment centers. Extending Wi-Fi to 6 GHz is "about connecting the dozens of in-home devices that we can expect in the future as well as supporting the extremely high-bandwidth applications that are emerging for indoor use," he said. Calabrese argued that Wi-Fi can make better use of the spectrum than mobile carriers because cellular signals have trouble penetrating walls, and most Internet traffic on mobile devices travels over Wi-Fi instead of cellular networks. "All the new applications envisioned for both 5G and 6G are inherently indoor applications, and mobile signals don't penetrate well indoors... Wi-Fi would use the band ubiquitously, indoors and outdoors," he said. Taking spectrum from federal users has also fueled concerns about military operations. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said in a speech last night that the "auction will fundamentally compromise our...