Battle for 6GHz heats up in America: Broadcasters sue FCC to kill effort to open spectrum for private Wi-Fi The argument over opening up the 6GHz spectrum range, allowing it to be used for things like private indoor Wi-Fi, is heating up with TV broadcasters now suing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In a petition [PDF] to the Washington DC Court of Appeals, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has challenged …
If personal 6GHz WiFi use would interfere outside of a home, it would interfere with reception of a signal from outside the home. So a licensed broadcaster operating on ad revenues (as many broadcasters have traditionally) could find their signal unable to be received in homes due to the use of personal 6GHz WiFi. That would translate into no ad revenues theoretically. That would make their 6GHz license worthless. I cannot see why they would complain.
NAB is worried about it because they use it for production - I suppose probably for wireless transmission of images in live events to their truck or something like that. If wifi starts using it, eventually every house/business will radiate 6 GHz signals (in addition to the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz) and it will be useless to them for that purpose and their expensive equipment will have to be replaced.
Yes, that's it exactly. I found this topic interesting enough to do some searching, and found this article that explains some of it. Apparently that band is used by wireless microphones as well as microwave backhaul links. To us not in the industry, WiFi in the home wouldn't appear to impact either of those applications. However, I can see a scenario where someone is trying to do an on-site news report in a suburban neighborhood, and every house is leaking these WiFi signals, rendering the spectrum unusable for licensed users.
https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/05/12/spectrum-faces-its-next-challenge-as-fcc-allocates-6-ghz-range-for-wi-fi-6/
We, here in the land of nether, we had a frequency allocation change. Some years ago. I worked at a sound/PA company. Owner joyfully continued to use the old mics/frequencies.
He also used a lot of [icon].
I do not have any contact over 6 GHz, or elsewise with the phenomenon.
Twice in our case - once for the 2012 "digital dividend" when we had to vacate the "800MHz band", that is TV channels 61 - 69, and again more recently when - despite being promised that the "700MHz band" (channels 49 - 60) was "safe", clearance of that band was announced. We had just bought some new kit in that band and had older kit retuned. Both bands are now allocated for "mobile broadband" (i.e. 4G / 5G).
There was a compensation scheme in both cases, but the amount of money available was determined partly by the age of the equipment. We're a small venue (in the grand scheme of things) and considering equipment that's only 10 years old as worthless isn't the way we work. Again, this time, some of our kit could be retuned (the newer kit as it happened) and we had to replace other kit.
Our next problem is going to be "white space" devices which are now allowed to share the much-reduced amount of spectrum available.
But 6GHz? That's a bit esoteric for us. As mentioned, all our radio mics are below 1GHz.
M.
To us not in the industry, WiFi in the home wouldn't appear to impact either of those applications.
Wifi is used in businesses too, from the smallest to the largest, so it wouldn't matter where you are doing an on-site report from, if it is near enough to a building it might see interference. Even if you aren't near a building in some cases - a guy I know who tailgates for football games has a cellular internet router in his RV which broadcasts wifi to the surrounding area. If he parked near the TV truck he would interfere if his router did 6 GHz wifi.
However, if your 6G WiFi signal is strong enough to get you good internet connectivity if you are sitting out back on the patio, then its strong enough to interfere with an incoming TV or other broadcast using that same frequency. So I can see why the broadcasters are PO'd.
As far as the broadcasters are concerned, It's used by satellite uplinks, and also point-to-point links for outside broadcasts etc.
There are other current uses, detailed here: https://www.mist.com/afc-and-6-ghz-incumbents/
(I'm the original anon. coward who replied to you [I'm in hiding at the moment!] and I didn't downvote either of your posts..... There do seem to be a number of miserable gits here though!)
So why are the broadcasters fussing about it? That spectrum is certainly not being used to deliver satellite TV
As per this nexttv article:
Broadcasters use the 6 GHz band for auxiliary (BAS) operations--"sporting events, breaking news and special events" and says the FCC's proposed interference protections--limiting it to lower-power, indoor operations--miss the mark, particularly since some camera transmitters used to relay footage back to stations also operate indoors and at low power, so they would be in the interference line of fire even with those limitations on unlicensed devices.
Also, as per your previous post:
However, if your 6G WiFi signal is strong enough to get you good internet connectivity if you are sitting out back on the patio, then its strong enough to interfere with an incoming TV or other broadcast using that same frequency.
Even if the previous statement showing it's not used for broadcast didn't exist and it was used for that, well it would be a consumer of a 6GHz WiFi signal self-interfering with an incoming 6GHz signal. In which case it is the consumers choice to forego (interfere with) the broadcasters incoming (to their residence) 6GHz signal in favour of their own use of 6GHz. So, consumer choice, use 6GHz Wifi and lose 6GHz broadcast reception (assuming the automatic frequency coordinator doesn't work) or use 2.4/5GHz WiFi and get the 6GHz broadcast signal.
Finally, why do you keep referring to it as '6G'? 6G would imply it being the successor to the mobile telecommunications (aka cell aka mobile phone) standard 5G, which is not 'G' for gigahertz, but G for Generation. 5G is the 5th Generation of the mobile telecommunications standard, nothing to do with frequencies at all. 6G, as you keep referring to it as, would imply the 6th Generation mobile telecommunications standard, and does not signify the 6GHz band, which is what we are talking about here.
This post has been deleted by its author
.... "broadcast TV" of which they speak?
I've lived in here in the good, old, totally demented US of A for my entire life (outside of six months in France and several visits to Scotland), and I haven't pulled in a broadcast signal on a TV since 1984.
To be fair, nationally something like 19% of TV owners are over-the-air only, though the figures vary widely among markets (e.g. 5% in Boston and 25 in some southern markets). I'm going to take a wild guess and suggest that most OTA folks aren't going to have their own 6 GHz, short-range WiFi gear, nor live close enough to anyone who does to make a difference.
6 GHz sounds like a marketing gimmick. The 5GHz range is already awful for indoor use because of poor wall penetration. I'm on 2.4 GHz unless I'm in the room with the AP or just outside a window. Might as well go to LiFi or mmWave for indoor networking rather than bump it up another GHz.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
