The FCC announced on Monday that it was freeing up more of the airwaves for Wi-Fi usage in the United States. A lobbying group, WifiForward – which consists of industry partners such as Google, Best Buy, Microsoft, and others – has been advocating the opening of unlicensed frequencies since the group’s forming in February.
The WiFiForward group’s response to the ruling (via MacRumors):
Today, the FCC voted unanimously to unleash more unlicensed spectrum will support all the things we already use and further drive investment and experimentation—a 50% increase in spectrum available for Wi-Fi, to be exact. Consumer devices are already equipped to operate in the band, so they can easily be adapted to quickly take advantage of new 5 GHz channels. And a new Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac, has just been approved for the 5 GHz band. 802.11ac’s wide channels will allow for a better consumer experience.
802.11ac was introduced in Apple’s Mac lineup in 2013, and will likely be included in the iPhone 6 later this year.
