FCC plans to free up large block of prime spectrum for Wi-Fi

Good news for everyone who’s tired of shoddy Wi-Fi connectivity in crowded cafes: the Federal Communications Commission is here to help. As CNET reports, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski made an important announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday when he discussed plans to free up 195MHz of spectrum on the 5GHz band, a move that will significantly boost Wi-Fi performance and ease congestion on crowded networks. The reallocation of spectrum on the 5GHz band would also represent “the largest block of unlicensed spectrum that has been made available for expansion of Wi-Fi since 2003,” CNET writes. The 5GHz band is currently being used by numerous federal government agencies, although Genachowski expressed confidence that the FCC can work with others in the government to get the spectrum free for unlicensed use.