By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Amazon’s eero gets get-out-of-jail card from FCC to escape router ban
In the exceedingly odd and still evolving debacle of the FCC’s foreign-manufactured router ban, Amazon’s eero becomes the latest Wi-Fi router company to receive an exemption from the FCC to continue (for now) to produce its products overseas. In the FCC’s latest notice on the issue (find it here) all of eero, NETGEAR, and Adtran have now been exempted from the ban.
The FCC’s application guideline says companies are expected to provide a “detailed, time-bound plan to establish or expand manufacturing in the United States for the router for which the applicant is seeking Conditional Approval in order for that device to qualify for FCC authorisation.” The exemptions are apparently only ‘conditional approvals’ valid until end of October next year. The exemption itself appears to have been granted after security scrutiny by the Department of War. We’re trying to keep you – dear reader – updated of this as best we can, as it evolves.
Charter EVP doubles down on the benefits of ‘seamless connectivity’
Charter is perhaps right now the world’s single biggest proponent of ‘seamless connectivity’ meaning using Wi-Fi to complement mobile services for connectivity, for example. In a recent interview with Charter EVP Danny Bowman (well worth reading and available here) the company elucidates the strategy and its benefits. Charter combines its mobile service with Wi-Fi to provide customers “with a far superior, faster, more reliable connection especially in homes and businesses where traditional cellular networks struggle at a greater value,” Danny Bowman says.
He also says that “nearly 90% of Spectrum Mobile traffic goes over our WiFi network, which offers improved stability, reduced latency and increased cost effectiveness compared to a cellular network.” Other important components of the Charter strategy includes the ‘Invincible Wi-Fi’ gateway featuring cellular backup (a WiFi NOW Award winner from 2025) and 50 million Wi-Fi access points across the country as part of Charter’s network.
Ookla ranks in-flight Wi-Fi and credits Starlink for best connectivity
A recent report by Ookla ranks available in-flight Wi-Fi services and – perhaps unsurprisingly – the best services can be found among airlines using Starlink as their carrier. The report documents a huge performance gap between LEO-backed Wi-Fi on board Air Baltic, WestJet, Hawaiian, United, and others largely delivering consistent 25 Mbps download / 3 Mbps upload while the rest of the field is ‘trapped’ below the 50% performance metric. In-flight Wi-Fi is becoming increasingly important to secure traveller loyalty, just like Wi-Fi is a key competitive factor for hotels. In just two years Starlink has captured 48% of the total number of Speedtest samples, Ookla says. Read the full report here.
Indian regulator ask for help on public Wi-Fi
The Telecom Regulation Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a new consultation paper outlining the possible need for a fundamental rethink on public Wi-Fi for India after the PM-WANI public hotspot project has failed to produce anything near the hotspot numbers aimed for. So far the project has resulted in the deployment of 410,000 hotspots while the government’s target was 10 million. More details on the consultation can be found here.
/Claus.
