Fight Over Wi-Fi in 6 GHz Band Likely to Continue at Next WRC

The 6 GHz band is critical to Wi-Fi, which hadn’t gotten new spectrum for 17 years before the 2020 order, Brown said. “We were long overdue for a spectrum infusion.” Carriers are focused on the upper 6 GHz band for licensed use, and there was a conflict between “these two enormous ecosystems” before the last WRC, she said. “Most countries in the world … didn’t want to decide what to do with upper 6.” The Americas region opted for a “mobile” classification, which allows both licensed and unlicensed use, she said.

“Nobody was ready to decide” on 6 GHz at the WRC in 2023, but in 2027, there's no agenda item on the band, and “everyone is treating 6 as having been decided,” Brown said. She predicted that 6 GHz will emerge as a “zombie” issue at the next WRC. “Like The Walking Dead,” the upper 6 GHz “is going to come back, because there are a lot of countries that are going to want to make moves.”

Advocates want to ensure that Wi-Fi “has an opportunity throughout the 6 GHz band,” Brown said. “We don’t to go backwards on that. We think we did a good thing. We think it was a big success.” Carriers are also focused on the 7 GHz band, but there’s no consensus globally or in the U.S. on that, she added.

Headed for China

Experts at the webinar also warned of the dangers of holding the WRC in China.

“Unofficially,” the 2027 WRC will be held in Shanghai, though that hasn’t been formally announced, Brown said. “That does raise issues with respect to U.S. participation.” Many U.S. participants are from the government, and the administration may be reluctant to send officials to China if they have sensitive information on their laptops, phones and other devices, she said.

China has also been aggressively pushing for the entire 6 GHz band to be allocated for international mobile telecommunications (IMT) and arguing against a similar allocation in the 7 GHz band, which is used by the Chinese military, Brown said. China hopes to see Huawei and ZTE benefit from building IMT networks in the upper 6 GHz, she noted. “In just about every jurisdiction we talk to, we meet Huawei representatives,” she said. “They are everywhere. … They are relentless and aggressive.”

Madeleine Chang, the Satellite Industry Association's director of policy, noted that holding the WRC in China will make transmission of classified information to and from delegates difficult. In a working group meeting in Shanghai earlier this year, “there was very limited industry participation just because of the security risks.”

In addition, China has previously detained industry executives and U.S. government employees, Chang said. “That is something that they have shown that they are willing to do,” and it “poses a physical danger for the delegates … because they may be prevented from leaving the country.” The satellite industry is also particularly vulnerable to espionage, she said. Unlike terrestrial telecom equipment, she noted, most satellite equipment is designed and manufactured in the U.S., and much of it is export controlled.

China will push its spectrum agenda “relentlessly,” Chang said. She also warned of China and Russia working together at the WRC to oppose U.S. positions, a dynamic that sometimes occurred in 2023. “That’s something that we are definitely looking out for.” Unlike Russia, China “definitely wants to be well liked on the world stage” and is looking for allies around the world, she said.

The WRC's fundamental goal is to harmonize how spectrum is used and to curb interference at international borders, Brown said. “It becomes easier to manage the use of that spectrum globally.” Harmonization also “produces global market opportunities,” which is good for equipment makers and consumers, she said. WRC delegates “don’t always achieve global harmonization, but they try to achieve regional harmonization.”

“Harmonization in spectrum policy is just tremendously important, especially for the satellite industry,” Chang added. The next WRC is “really going to be a big one for the space industry, and a lot of different countries have an agenda.”

Chang said she just received an email from the FCC saying that the agency’s WRC Advisory Committee is on pause during the federal shutdown. “That, I hope, will not hinder our preparations too much, especially if the shutdown isn’t too long.”

Brown noted that delegates from the U.S. government are attending an Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meeting in Brazil this week, Brown said. “I don’t know what the [government] rules are about coming home,” she said. “I’m sure they had return tickets previously purchased.” The government has some discretion to send people to international meetings during a shutdown, she added.