Internet and Innovation Leaders Urge White House to Open 5.9 GHz Spectrum

Today, a broad coalition of 24 high-tech companies, consumer groups, and school and library associations delivered a joint letter to President Obama asking him to prioritize shared use of a valuable frequency band of spectrum that can enable both high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity and, if it proves viable, the vehicle-to-vehicle safety signaling technology proposed by the Department of Transportation (DOT).

The coalition urged President Obama “to make the 5.9 GHz band a centerpiece of your Administration’s efforts to make new unlicensed frequencies available to advance consumer broadband across the nation.”

The auto industry and high-tech companies have been on a collision course over access to a large but mostly unused band of spectrum at 5.9 GHz. The White House is caught in the middle between two agencies: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – and its pending rulemaking to facilitate high-speed Wi-Fi – and DOT’s long-term effort to develop a wireless safety signaling system to promote crash avoidance.

Since only 30 megahertz of the 75 megahertz band are needed for crash-avoidance applications, OTI, as well as Qualcomm, Broadcom and others, have proposed reorganizing the band to allow at least 40 megahertz for shared use between Wi-Fi and non-safety auto applications (such as in-vehicle displays of advertising, road signs and directions).

OTI recently published a report and recommendations on this issue.

The following quote can be attributed to Michael Calabrese, Director of the Wireless Future Program at the Open Technology Institute:

“Only the White House is capable of brokering a solution that would result in a win-win for consumers. Even if a portion of the 5.9 GHz frequency band is needed exclusively for auto safety, Wi-Fi can share the rest of the band with non-safety auto applications. Sharing this under-utilized public spectrum would strike the best balance between the public interest in auto safety and more high-capacity and affordable wireless broadband access.”