Chapter 4: The Regulators Role

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Overview

The successful, long-term development of the Wi-Fi industry is contingent upon the availability of spectrum for its expansion. But for decades spectrum has been considered a scarce resource-a resource that governments must carefully control and manage. To that end, every country has established some sort of regulatory body to oversee its strict regulation.

Some regulatory bodies will aid Wi-Fi in its rise to prominence in an effort to establish their respective countries as infotech hubs, others will not. Most regulatory agencies, however, will take a balanced stance, acting to prevent spectrum overcrowding while at the same time promoting Wi-Fi interoperability and QoS standards.

Over the last decade or so, high-speed wireless local area networks (WLANs) were made possible because various regulatory agencies decided to set aside a small swath of unlicensed radio frequencies and to allow anyone who followed a simple set of rules to use that spectrum with no administrative process or fee for access. Much of Wi-Fi's popularity is due to the fact that it can operate in this unlicensed spectrum and this popularity is creating a new generation of people who use Wi-Fi and exploit its unique technology through creative applications.

There is pressure being put to bear on regulatory agencies, however, to inhibit this mainly grassroots innovation. If history can be our guide, government officials are at this moment being lobbied to impose changes in the regulations-changes that could be detrimental to Wi-Fi's growth. Large telcos, cellular providers, broadcasters and the military constantly challenge regulatory agencies' spectrum allocations.

The worry is that as the result of those challenges, the regulators will step in and end all of the creativity Wi-Fi has wrought. Thus, it's these governmental regulatory agencies that are the key to the continuance (or the dampening) of the Wi-Fi boom.

Before we look at how the various regulatory agencies are dealing with the Wi-Fi phenomenon, we first need to discuss what's at stake-spectrum. Do you understand what we mean by "spectrum"? If not, here is a very brief tutorial.

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