Wireless Broadband Alliance: ‘Brazil disappointed us'

Debate about granting more spectrum for 4G, 5G and new-generation technology such as 6G or more spectrum for enhanced Wi-Fi services dominated the World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC), held this month in Dubai. 

The summit, organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the UN, is the global forum for talks on spectrum standards.

One of the resolutions proposed by Brazil and other countries and approved at the meeting recommended the division of the disputed 6GHz band for mobile communication and Wi-Fi. That decision was not popular with the Wi-Fi equipment industry or fixed internet providers.

In 2021, Brazilian regulator Anatel authorized the whole 1,200MHz of the band for non-licensed services for Wi-Fi services, without it having to be tendered.

In this interview, Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the global Wi-Fi industry group Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and a former executive of Portugal Telecom, talks about the spectrum dispute and development of the Wi-Fi industry.

BNamericas: What did you make of WRC-23?

Rodrigues: Speaking specifically about agenda 1.2, which was the topic relating to the 6Ghz band, I think a compromise decision was reached.

What do I mean by that? The telecom industry was somewhat divided between the cellular world, which wanted at least part of the band for its use, and the Wi-Fi and internet provider segments, which wanted the band for Wi-Fi.

There was a compromise so that part of the band be used for cellular technologies and another part for unlicensed use for Wi-Fi.

At the same time, there was a resolution that, in my view, was very important and that encompasses two themes. It was decided that other bands can be used by the cellular industry, which are 4GHz and 7GHz. And also that, in 6GHz, it is either all for unlicensed use, or the band will be divided into two, with one part for cellular communications and the other for Wi-Fi.

BNamericas: In other words, the cellular communications industry doesn't take it all in either case.

Rodrigues: Exactly. Furthermore, it's important that we've defined this matter now. We won't waste any more time discussing it and that's very significant for investments and industry development.

Regarding the 4GHz and 7GHz bands for cellular communications, this is important because one of the main arguments from cellular operators was that there was no longer much spectrum available and, therefore, the 6GHz band was extremely important for the sector.

From the moment that new doors open for the expansion of cellular spectrum at the WRC, 6Ghz is no longer so important. This is also a small victory. In the next 5-10 years, the cellular world may expand to bands other than 6GHz.

BNamericas: What are the prospects for the industry now?

Rodrigues: My prediction is that we'll start to see a group of countries, which in some way were in stand-by mode about what to do with the 6GHZ band, making decisions to allocate this spectrum and promote the development of the segment.

I believe they'll follow the WRC guidelines, either giving the entire bandwidth to Wi-Fi or giving half to Wi-Fi and reserving the other half for cellular communications.

BNamericas: In Brazil, Anatel's proposal for 6GHz is to reserve 700MHz for cellular communications and 500MHz for unlicensed use ...

Rodrigues: Brazil disappointed us – it went backwards. It’s a pity. I had hoped the country would follow its initial direction and give all the bandwidth over to unlicensed use. 

Brazil is a very large country, it still has chronic connectivity problems, especially in remote and rural areas, often with a population with very low purchasing power. Wi-Fi is without a doubt the most accessible and most universal technology that these people can have in terms of connectivity.

BNamericas: But statistics show that the majority of Brazilian households access the internet exclusively via their mobile phones.

Rodrigues: It's true. However, often, if I want to share connectivity within a family, I can do it via 4G but I will still need Wi-Fi to do that irradiation. I myself often turn my own cell phone into a hotspot to connect two, three laptops.

So, even though there might be a lack of Wi-Fi with fiber or fixed connectivity, it continues to be important for sharing the cellular connection between different users.

BNamericas: Considering the largest economies in Latin America, local regulators' decisions regarding the 6GHz band haven’t been too favorable for the sector. In addition to Brazil, which is backtracking on its decision to reserve the entire band for Wi-Fi, Chile also backtracked and Mexico opted to give half of the band to Wi-Fi. 

Rodrigues: I'm going to share a more personal opinion than that of the WBA. I think that many of these governments wanted to find a compromise solution and ended up splitting the band in the face of a lot of pressure, a lot of lobbying from both parties. They left neither of them completely satisfied, but giving something to both.

Now, in the long term, having a world divided between different countries, with different capabilities for the unlicensed segment, will make a difference. There will be an impact on the scale of the sector and also on the level of services that can be made available with high bandwidth for Wi-Fi coverage in certain locations, such as airports and stadiums. In other words, some countries will have better quality Wi-Fi than others.

BNamericas: There is talk at Anatel in Brazil that the release of the entire 6Ghz band for Wi-Fi in 2021 didn’t bring in the investments, new equipment and development of new technologies that were expected, such as Wi-FI 6E. In fact, that may have been one of the reasons why Anatel reversed its decision. What do you think?

Rodrigues: What I can say is that, in countries that have made the entire band available for unlicensed use, such as the United States, Wi-Fi 6E and even 7 have accelerated.

It would be important to conduct a more detailed analysis of why this didn’t happen in Brazil, whether due to purchasing power issues, technological limitations or the inability of local manufacturers to launch this new equipment ...

The Wi-Fi industry was very innovative and even before the WRC-23 decision there were already lots of products available on the market for 6GHz, while the cellular world had nothing. The cellular world doesn't even know what services it will use in this band. It’s still spectrum for the future.

BNamericas: What are the bets for Wi-Fi 7?

Rodrigues: Wi-Fi as a whole has greatly accelerated innovation. The negative point of this, in some ways, is that it added a lot of pressure to manufacturers to update the new standards. On the other hand, there are many benefits. 

WiFi-7 will bring a very important feature, which is multi-link operation. In other words, it will allow me to use channels from different spectrum bands – 2.4GHz, 5Ghz and 6Ghz – at the same time to send data packets.

Making an analogy between Wi-Fi and roads, sometimes you get into a lane you can’t leave it. With Wi-Fi 7, let's imagine a road with multiple lanes where you can move from one to another where there’s less traffic. It will be much more effective.

BNamericas: How was 2023 for the industry and what are the projections for 2024?

Rodrigues: 2023 was an excellent year, and it comes in an upward trend for Wi-Fi, which experienced an incredible sales boom following the start of the pandemic.

From a business point of view, we’ve seen some sectors investing a lot in Wi-Fi in recent years, such as the tourism and hospitality sectors.

I think that all this discussion of standards, from Wi-Fi 5, to 6 and 6E, also greatly accelerated the market.

We don’t carry out studies with specific growth forecasts, but for 2024, the whole issue of 6Ghz, Wi-Fi 7, will create great dynamism in the market. Growth in sales and traffic will continue and we also see great opportunities for artificial intelligence to play an increasingly important role in optimizing Wi-Fi coverage, both indoors and outdoors, and network configuration.

Two other very important topics, especially for retail, are security and privacy, especially for public places such as shopping malls, airports and hotels.

BNamericas: Hasn't the peak of Wi-Fi spending already passed with the pandemic?

Rodrigues: What I'm hearing from manufacturers is that demand hasn't slowed. 

And I would say that operators also have a very important role as sales channels [for routers] and implementation of advanced technologies. Ultimately, this impacts the perception of the quality of their services.