OTTAWA — Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne today announced the federal government’s decision to open the 6 GHz frequency band for licence-exempt use, making an additional 1200 MHz of spectrum available for Wi-Fi, which triples the amount currently available.
Opening up the 6 GHz band (5925-7125 MHz band) for Wi-Fi use is expected to help alleviate congestion in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands currently used by Wi-Fi devices. While Canadian wireless carriers were hoping the government would reserve the band for 5G, the move mirrors the decision made in April 2020 by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to keep it for unlicenced uses.
ISED says in its decision it aimed to closely align with the use of the 6 GHz band adopted by the FCC, in order to leverage the incipient U.S. equipment ecosystem.
“More spectrum available for Wi-Fi means Canadians will benefit from increased speed and connectivity for working from home, participating in online education and accessing health care services remotely. This decision also allows for more affordable deployment of broadband technology in rural areas and increased access to the spectrum for Canadian businesses and innovators looking to use it,” reads the government’s press release.
The 6 GHz band is currently allocated for fixed services (including fixed microwave and fixed point-to-point TV auxiliary services) and fixed-satellite services (also used for broadcasting as well as telecommunications and Internet connectivity).
In its decision, ISED Canada says it is allowing licence-exempt RLAN (radio local area network) use in the 6 GHz band, and will update the Canadian Table of Frequency Allocations to say licence-exempt RLAN applications “must operate in accordance with the established spectrum policy and technical framework; and most not cause harmful interference to, or claim protection from, licensed systems operating in the band.”
The Canadian government’s decision to allow licence-exempt use in the 6 GHz band follows a consultation launched in November 2020.
The decision means new Wi-Fi routers which use this additional spectrum will soon come to market and help improve what companies providing fibre to the home/business can offer customers. It means new Wi-Fi channels with far less interference than with 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz.
Since the U.S. announced this decision more than a year ago, manufacturers are already making chipsets that will go into phones, tablets, TVs and so on to allow them to connect to the routers using 6 GHz. Better bandwidth and more spectrum should mean less congestion is coffee shops and more capabilities for smart devices in homes and businesses.
Some of this unlicensed spectrum will also be available for use in rural areas to supply wireless broadband, too. So, those who should like this decision are the likes of Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, chipset makers, and rural broadband providers.
