By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
We’re delighted to announce that we finally last week at WWC Sarasota had the opportunity to honour an exceptional individual whom we’ve wanted to give an award for a long time. Ajit Pai – former FCC Chairman and today Partner at Searchlight Capital Partners – received the Wi-Fi NOW Hall of Fame Award for his visionary leadership in establishing new regulation allocating the 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi in the US.
The largest allocation of new midband frequencies to unlicensed operation in history happened on April 23, 2020 when Ajit Pai – FCC Chairman at the time – signed 1.2 GHz of new Wi-Fi spectrum into law. It was a tech landmark decision that will resonate decades into the future. Last week we finally had the opportunity to thank Ajit Pai for his visionary leadership.
Ajit Pai – today Partner at Searchlight Capital Partners – received the Wi-Fi NOW Hall of Fame Award for ‘exceptional contributions to the Wi-Fi industry’ and he was gracious enough to join the festivities at our WWC social evening event at Big Top Brewery in Sarasota, Florida, which included celebrating 25 years of Wi-Fi. Later in the evening we coincidentally also learned that Ajit Pai is an excellent vocal performer of R&B classics such as “Sittin’ on the dock of the bay” and others.
In fairness we should mention that the 6 GHz spectrum allocation was approved unanimously by all FCC commissioners at the time – and that much of the credit for the decision and the work that went into the preceding complex regulatory decision making process must also go to the staff at the FCC as well as numerous Wi-Fi industry executives whom we intend honour in due course.
/Claus.
