This piece originally appeared in the Washington Reporter.
Wi-Fi is one of those technologies so easy to take for granted. Remember the dark ages when you had to use an ethernet cord to get a decent connection? Today, Wi-Fi is ubiquitous and carries the vast majority of Internet traffic. It’s kept up despite ever-growing demands on broadband networks — from streaming video and online gaming to virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI).
That it just works is not by happenstance. Like any wireless technology, Wi-Fi relies on spectrum — the invisible airwaves that power everything from your car radio to Bluetooth speakers to Starlink satellites. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which manages the nation’s commercial airwaves, has made key decisions to free up spectrum for Wi-Fi so that networks can satiate Americans’ ever-growing demand for and reliance on more data.
While Washington isn’t known for planning ahead, Wi-Fi offers a rare exception. In 2020, recognizing that Wi-Fi networks would become congested without access to more spectrum, the FCC under then-Chairman Ajit Pai made a bold and visionary decision. He led his fellow commissioners in a bipartisan, unanimous vote to triple the amount of spectrum available for Wi-Fi by freeing up the entire 6 GHz band for its use.
