Austin, TX, July 30, 2015 - Today Senator Brian Schatz presented a letter to the Federal Communications Commission in response to the FCC's Public Notice on unlicensed LTE. Wi-Fi Alliance® thanks Senator Schatz for his leadership on unlicensed spectrum policy and his recognition of the risk to more than 200 million Wi-Fi® users in the United States if LTE deployments in unlicensed spectrum fail to implement mechanisms that ensure fairness.

Sen. Schatz's observation that there is an absence of industry consensus about the real-world effects of unlicensed LTE deployments is accurate and is a point of grave concern for the Wi-Fi industry.

We welcome industry stakeholders interested in ensuring fair spectrum sharing to work in Wi-Fi Alliance on activities including documenting fair sharing guidelines, coexistence testing, and simulations. We intend to play an ongoing leadership role in driving industry consensus on the mechanisms needed to achieve fairness without hindering innovation or harming Wi-Fi users.

We support all efforts to achieve industry consensus on fairness mechanisms. We will participate in collaboration activities in any suitable forum. We support the Senator's recommendation that FCC initiate a process to ensure constructive dialogue continues in an open and neutral forum and to promote continued work on effective spectrum sharing mechanisms.

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is a global non-profit industry association – our members are the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. The members of our collaboration forum come from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem and share a common vision of connecting everyone and everything, everywhere. Since 2000, the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, industry-standard security protections, and the latest technology. Wi-Fi Alliance has certified more than 25,000 products, delivering the best user experience and encouraging the expanded use of Wi-Fi products and services in new and established markets. Today, billions of Wi-Fi products carry a significant portion of the world’s data traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. 

Austin, TX, February 9, 2015 - Unlicensed spectrum is one of society’s most valuable resources. The Wi-Fi® industry’s innovation, promotion and good stewardship of the unlicensed 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz bands has helped deliver significant benefits to users and driven immense economic value worldwide.

As U.S. Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel stated in her recent remarks to the 2015 State of the Net Conference, "Wi-Fi is a boon to the economy. The economic impact of unlicensed spectrum has been estimated at more than $140 billion annually and it's only going to grow." Indeed, numerous studies (see Katz and Plum Consulting) assess the worldwide economic value of Wi-Fi in hundreds of billions of dollars.

Wi-Fi exemplifies innovation, delivering higher-performance connectivity and carrying more data traffic than cellular networks. In the last 15 years, Wi-Fi data rates have advanced from 11 Mbps to exceed 1 Gbps – and continued innovation will deliver Wi-Fi data rates exceeding 5 Gbps within a few short years. The growing worldwide demand for connectivity cannot be supported without Wi-Fi. Today, Wi-Fi carries ten times the IP data traffic of cellular.

5 GHz spectrum is a critical element of today’s Wi-Fi – it is widely used to support the capacity and performance requirements of our connected world. Since its introduction in 2001, 5 GHz Wi-Fi has expanded its reach well beyond enterprise networks into billions of consumer devices used worldwide.  

Wi-Fi Alliance® is aware of 3GPP work addressing LTE operation in the unlicensed 5 GHz band, known as LAA, as well as early deployments of pre-standard LAA-like systems. There is a risk that LAA, and especially pre-standard systems deployed ahead of coexistence work being done in the industry, will negatively impact billions of Wi-Fi users who rely on 5 GHz today for networking and device connectivity. It is generally agreed in principle that fair sharing is required, but there needs to be further work from all parties to address this risk in practice.

The future value of unlicensed spectrum is dependent upon good stewardship by all technologies that share the resource. The LTE and Wi-Fi communities must work toward a mutually understood fair and effective use of the 5 GHz band and ensure that there are no adverse effects to the installed base and future users of Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi Alliance is planning collaboration with 3GPP, and is eager to work with those planning pre-standard deployments to help them continue to satisfy the expectations of Wi-Fi users.

Wi-Fi Alliance will also continue to support regulators in their attempts to understand this emerging technology and its implications. We plan to work with regulators and industry stakeholders toward an industry-led outcome that avoids heavy regulation and ensures that users are able to benefit from Wi-Fi well into the future.

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is a global non-profit industry association – our members are the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. The members of our collaboration forum come from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem and share a common vision of connecting everyone and everything, everywhere. Since 2000, the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, industry-standard security protections, and the latest technology. Wi-Fi Alliance has certified more than 23,000 products, delivering the best user experience and encouraging the expanded use of Wi-Fi products and services in new and established markets. Today, billions of
Wi-Fi products carry a significant portion of the world’s data traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. 

Organizations continue to collaborate on Carrier Wi-Fi solutions

Singapore and Austin, Texas, February 17 2014 – Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and Wi-Fi Alliance® will co-host a demonstration of Wi-Fi® roaming at Mobile World Congress next week in association with the WBA Carrier Wi-Fi Summit hosted onsite. Visitors to the demonstration will be able to experience seamless network authentication where a number of the latest Passpoint devices will be made available for attendees to roam on to the demonstration network. Supported by 18 operators, the demonstration offers an exclusive look at a live WBA Next Generation Hotspot network using Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint™ equipment from seven vendors, and reflects significant momentum toward industry-standard easy-to-use Wi-Fi hotspots and roaming.

With data traffic pressure on wireless networks expected to increase more than 400 percent in the next four years, industry support for Wi-Fi roaming services leveraging NGH Guidelines and Passpoint is coalescing. Recent research conducted by Maravedis-Rethink on behalf of WBA indicates that more than half of operators surveyed have become “more confident” about investing in public Wi-Fi than in the previous year. More than 27 global operators have participated in three phases of WBA NGH trials, and to date, more than 400 devices have obtained Passpoint certification, including a wide range of smartphones and tablets.

“The availability of industry-standard Wi-Fi roaming as a successor to proprietary implementations sets the stage for deployment by a broad set of mobile operators,” said Caroline Gabriel, Research Director at Maravedis-Rethink. “Progress in Passpoint device implementation and broad consensus on roaming guidelines significantly eases deployment, enabling operators to realize the opportunities for advanced Wi-Fi roaming.”

In response to Wi-Fi deployment trends among operators, Wi-Fi Alliance and WBA have expanded their collaboration beyond coordination on hotspot technology requirements into a broader set of activities to advance Carrier Wi-Fi. Coordination amongst several influential industry groups will help define a shared vision for Carrier Wi-Fi and identify early opportunities to deliver on that vision. Wi-Fi technology innovations have the potential to further enhance the user experience, drive end-to-end integration, and improve network management.

“Confidence in Wi-Fi has increased significantly over the past 12 months as operators view it as a critical part of the hetnet. With Next Generation Hotspot deployments becoming more commonplace, this confidence will continue to grow well into the future,” said Shrikant Shenwai, CEO of Wireless Broadband Alliance. “We are pleased to extend our work with Wi-Fi Alliance to ensure that our industry is delivering on the promise of Carrier Wi-Fi.”

“Collaboration among stakeholders is more important than ever as operator Wi-Fi deployments accelerate,” said Wi-Fi Alliance president and CEO Edgar Figueroa. “Our work with WBA is an important element to continue our industry’s progress toward Carrier Wi-Fi.”

The Wi-Fi roaming demonstration takes place as part of the WBA Carrier Wi-Fi Summit. The event will include a conference, networking opportunities, and exhibition. Wi-Fi Alliance, a lead industry partner for the event, will participate with an executive keynote speaker and help lead a session addressing tactical considerations in deploying Passpoint and NGH. To see the full agenda, visit: http://www.wballiance.com/carrier-wi-fi-summit/conference-program

About the Wireless Broadband Alliance
Founded in 2003, the aim of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) is to secure an outstanding user experience through the global deployment of next generation Wi-Fi. In order to make this a reality, the WBA is currently championing various initiatives in the Wi-Fi ecosystem including Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) trials, Wi-Fi Roaming and its Interoperability Compliance Program (ICP). Today, membership includes major fixed operators such as BT, Comcast and Time Warner Cable; seven of the top 10 mobile operator groups (by revenue) and leading technology companies such as Cisco, Google and Intel. WBA member operators collectively serve more than 1 billion subscribers and operate more than 5 million hotspots globally. The WBA Board includes Arqiva, AT&T, Boingo Wireless, BT, China Mobile, Cisco Systems, Comcast, iPass, KT Corporation, NTT DOCOMO, Orange and Ruckus Wireless.

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Press Contact:
Stephanie Ross
Temono for Wireless Broadband Alliance
+44 207 089 8896
wba@temono.com

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is a global non-profit industry association – our members are the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. The members of our collaboration forum come from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem and share a vision of seamless connectivity. Since 2000, the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, industry-standard security protections, and the latest technology. Wi-Fi Alliance has certified more than 18,000 products, delivering the best user experience and encouraging the expanded use of Wi-Fi products and services in new and established markets. Today, billions of Wi-Fi products carry a significant portion of the world’s data traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications.

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Press Contact:
James Whyte
Edelman for Wi-Fi Alliance
+4420 3047 2273
james.whyte@edelman.com