Commission frees up frequencies for WiFi

euractiv.com | InfoSociety |Published: Wednesday 20 July 2005 | : Monday 25 July 2005

In Short:

In a move that may boost the technology in Europe, the Commission has decided to assign two additional frequency bands to wireless local area networks, known as WiFi.

RELATED

* Wireless Internet (Wi-Fi)

Brief News:

The two newly allocated bands in the 5 GHz spectrum are already available for wireless in America and the Asia/Pacific region, due to an agreement reached at the World Radiocommunications Conference in 2003. Their availability will remedy capacity shortages in the 2.4 GHz spectrum presently used for WiFi in Europe.

The additional frequencies will allow companies, as well as users in densely populated areas, to switch to wireless protocols allowing for higher bandwidth. This increased bandwidth is of particular importance due to the emergence of Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony, which many users use from their portable computers. In the future, other devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellphones are expected to be able to connect to WiFi, and within the next five years, the technology may even supersede wire-bound local area networks (LANs).

When attributing the two new frequency bands, the Commission also had to take protection measures to avoid interference with neighbouring frequency bands, used by the military and by satellite operators.

Links


Official Documents

Commission: Wireless Access Systems (WAS) including Radio Local Area Networks (RLANs): Frequently Asked Questions

Commission (DG Information Society): Radio spectrum policy

Commission (DG Information Society): on the harmonised use of radio spectrum in the 5 GHz frequency band for the implementation of Wireless Access Systems including Radio Local Area Networks (WAS/RLANs) (15 July 2005) [FR] [DE]

Commission (Press release): Radio local area networks: Commission enables faster wireless access to the internet [FR] [DE]

Press articles

EE Times: European Commission tells countries to increase Wi-Fi spectrum

Internet News: Europe Opens Spectrum for Wireless Broadband

MacWorld: EU approves 5GHz WiFi standard

Wi-Fi Planet: Europe Opens Spectrum for Wireless Broadband

Source: here

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Radio local area networks: Commission enables faster wireless access to the internet
press release | europa.eu.int | Brussels, July 14 2005

Wireless access to the Internet will become faster and more widespread thanks to a decision adopted by the Commission today. This decision makes available a substantial amount of radio spectrum throughout the European Union for radio local area networks (RLANs) – commonly known as “Wi-Fi” –, used to provide access on the move to the Internet and private networks. Market analysts suggest an explosion of WiFi users over the next 3 years.

“High-speed electronic communication networks are essential to Europe’s competitiveness. A supportive regulatory environment is a key factor in their take-up,” commented Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. “Today’s Commission decision will help industry to create innovative services, such as wireless Voice over IP, for a single European market.”

This decision, part of the i2010 initiative to foster growth and jobs in the digital economy (see IP/05/643), paves the way for an open and competitive single market for wireless access systems.

Access to this spectrum with common rules will make equipment cheaper and alleviate the growing overloading of spectrum already used for this purpose. It will facilitate the take-up of wireless systems for private as well as public access, from corporate networks to hotspots in areas such as airports, train stations, shopping malls and hotels.

According to market analysts today’s 120 million Wi-Fi users world-wide (25 million in Western Europe) may grow to 500 million and more over the next 3 years, putting radio local area networks in the same league as cellular mobile in terms of consumer appeal. Economically speaking differences will remain as Wi-Fi customer revenue is substantially lower: Wi-Fi is offered at much lower cost and quite often for free.

Today’s Commission decision, which is to be implemented by Member States by 31 October 2005, makes two specific frequency bands (5150-5350 MHz and 5470-5725 MHz) available in all Member States for wireless access systems. The decision also introduces innovative spectrum management approaches, by requiring the application of “intelligent” techniques to protect other radio spectrum users against harmful interference, such as military radar and satellite services.

Further information available on:

http://europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/radio_spectrum/index_en.htm

The decision can be found at:

http://europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/radio_spectrum/ref_info/documents/legislative_documents/index_en.htm

Source: here