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LTE Over Wi-Fi Spectrum Sets Up Industry-wide Fight Over Interference

posted by cmn32480 on Friday August 28 2015, @09:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the it'll-still-cost-too-much dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

A plan to use Wi-Fi airwaves for cellular service has sparked concerns about interference with existing Wi-Fi networks, causing a fight involving wireless carriers, cable companies, a Wi-Fi industry trade group, Microsoft, and network equipment makers.

Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile US plan to boost coverage in their cellular networks by using unlicensed airwaves that also power Wi-Fi equipment. While cellular carriers generally rely upon airwaves to which they have exclusive licenses, a new system called LTE (Long-Term Evolution)-Unlicensed (LTE-U) would have the carriers sharing spectrum with Wi-Fi devices on the unlicensed 5GHz band.

Verizon has said it intends to deploy LTE-U in 5GHz in 2016. Before the interference controversy threatened to delay deployments, T-Mobile was expected to use the technology on its smartphones by the end of 2015. Wireless equipment makers like Qualcomm see an opportunity to sell more devices and are integrating LTE-U into their latest technology.

Is this a blessing for cell phone users, a curse for those who have to manage wifi networks, or a move that could backfire on telecommunication companies as cell service-over-wifi becomes ubiquitous and threatens their network advantage?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @01:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @01:54AM (#229292)

    Is this a blessing for cell phone users,

    Eh, maybe. Depends how it's deployed, and which alternative it's being compared to. (The status quo? If carriers were to put up 802.11ac networks instead of LTE-U? Something else?)

    a curse for those who have to manage wifi networks,

    Sort of, but thanks to the propagation characteristics of 5GHz, it's not as bad as it could be.

    or a move that could backfire on telecommunication companies as cell service-over-wifi becomes ubiquitous and threatens their network advantage?

    Now that just doesn't make sense. This isn't "cell-service-over-wifi", it's "cell-service-over-the-same-frequencies-as-wifi". If anything, the effect is probably the opposite -- whatever interference LTE-U causes for domestic WiFi will make third-party VoIP apps over WiFi an even less reliable substitute for cellular voice calls.