March 1, 2017–Regions will likely need to add between 500 megahertz and 1 gigahertz of additional spectrum to the pipeline by 2025 to meet the growing data traffic demands for Wi-Fi, according to a report released by the Wi-Fi Alliance. “We have shown that, for the year 2025, the various regions are likely to need to find between 500 MHz and 1 GHz more spectrum than currently available to satisfy the Busy Hour scenario, which reflects the widely expected growth in traffic. If demand were to exceed the present Busy Hour predictions, our Upper Bound scenario suggests that an estimated maximum of between 1.3 and 1.8 GHz more spectrum than currently available may be needed,” according to the report.

“The Upper Bound scenario might occur due to unexpected adoption of novel applications or a further concentration of the busy hour traffic into fewer than the assumed four hours per day, for example. In other words, the Busy Hour scenario is the most likely to occur while the Upper Bound scenario is less likely, yet still plausible.” The report was prepared by Quotient Associates Ltd.

Courtesy TRDaily