Licensed Wi-Fi?

Amazon reportedly has tested spectrum that could support either mobile or untethered network access, using Globalstar spectrum originally licensed for satellite applications, but which Globalstar now has asked to reposition as the foundation for a terrestrial network featuring Long Term Evolution for mobile services.

But Globalstar also is interested in a different concept for at least some of its spectrum. Terrestrial Low Power Service is a proposed new 802.11 based service that enables a privately managed extension to the 2.4 GHz 802.11 band and is compatible with the existing 802.11 ecosystem of devices.

Basically, TLPS would add a new licensed Wi-Fi channel of 22 MHz that is adjacent to the existing Wi-Fi spectrum in the 2.4 GHz frequencies. At least in principle, that means Globalstar could offer a managed, quality-assured version of Wi-Fi that most likely would not provide mobility service, but could support in-home, in-building and public Wi-Fi service.

Though still using a traditional licensed spectrum approach, TLPS leverages the ecosystem of adjacent unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum devices. In principle, a firmware change would allow any Wi-Fi device to use the licensed TLPS spectrum, plus all the unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum.

That still represents a licensed spectrum approach, but in a new way, leveraging the installed base and popularity of unlicensed Wi-Fi devices and usage scenarios.

The TLPS approach is one new example of a larger trend, namely the blending of application and business cases for services that use both licensed and unlicensed spectrum. One clear example is the way Wi-Fi now gets used to offload perhaps an overwhelming majority of mobile data traffic from the mobile to the fixed network.

Some studies suggest that 80 percent of data used on mobile devices is consumed using Wi‑Fi connections to fixed networks, OECD says.

In fact, the potential value of TLPS is precisely that it would allow firmware-upgraded devices to use a managed-quality version of Wi-Fi with perhaps three times the range of traditional Wi-Fi, with quality of service assurances in some cases.

Traditional licensed service providers, such as mobile operators, might not be too keen on greater availability of unlicensed spectrum, though additional shared spectrum generally is viewed positively.

But experience has shown that even when unlicensed spectrum operations appear to be competitive with services based on licensed spectrum, such unlicensed operations actually are complementary to licensed access.

The ability to offload traffic to Wi-Fi means mobile operators can save on capital investment that would be necessary if 100 percent of traffic were carried on the mobile network.

As regulators and policy makers ponder the additional licensing of new spectrum, using both shared and unlicensed approaches, the natural tendency to oppose issuance of new unlicensed spectrum might need to be examined.

As Wi-Fi already has shown, unlicensed local distribution, and perhaps even unlicensed access, can be highly complementary to operations using licensed spectrum.