By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Brendan Carr nominated as new FCC Chairman
The incoming Trump administration has selected current FCC commissioner Brendan Carr as new FCC Chairman. Carr has served as FCC commissioner since 2017. It was largely expected that Carr would be Trump’s choice as he is the senior Republican among currently serving commissioners. Carr has been critical of the current administration’s alleged failure to spend US$42 billion in already allocated internet funds (read more here). “Commissioner Carr is a warrior for free speech, and has fought against the regulatory lawfare that has stifled Americans’ freedoms, and held back our economy,” Trump said in a statement.
Carr is by most experts believed to be supportive of more unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi although he has also been a champion of more band for IMT. Carr strongly supported the release of the 6 GHz band and was former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s chief counsel before Trump appointed him to the FCC in 2017. Hence Carr’s tenure is likely to continue the policies of previous chairs Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, who have both also been highly supportive of more unlicensed spectrum for next generation Wi-Fi.
New report: Value of 6 GHz band in India exceeds US$4 trillion
The economic value of allocating the full 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi in India would be excess of US$4 trillion for 2024-2034, a new report says. That newly derived figure includes the value of 1200 MHz of new 6 GHz spectrum plus the existing value of 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands. The report – commissioned by the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance and written by a team of experts from Telecom Advisory Services headed up by Dr Raul Katz – is available for download here. The report also looks into the corresponding values of splitting the band between Wi-Fi and IMT (mobile).
New devices powered by Qualcomm Wi-Fi
Qualcomm partners continue to release new Wi-Fi 7-capable products – now including the Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Pro phones, which are the first commercial products powered by Qualcomm’s FastConnect 7900 platform. The new Xiaomi phones will initially be made available in China, Qualcomm says. FastConnect 7900 is also included other Chinese market phones such as Vivo’s IQOO13, the Honor Magic 7 and Magic 7 Pro, and OnePlus 13. The eero Outdoor 7 router released earlier this month is also powered by Qualcomm’s Wi-Fi 7 technology.
Plume IQ: Substantial increase in botnets & malware
The latest reveal from Plume IQ – the analytics service by broadband services platform provider Plume – indicates that cybersecurity risks have risen substantially from 2023 to 2024. Plume says the company’s security platform has blocked 103% more botnet and 78% more malware attacks in 2024. For all the details from Plume IQ’s cybersecurity report, read here.
/Claus.
