The WiFi Alliance this week stressed the need for the telco industry to ensure that LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) does not interfere with WiFi.
"Nobody wants to be the people who killed WiFi," said Kelly Davis-Felner, vice president of marketing at the WiFi Alliance. "Nobody wants to be the people who couldn’t figure out how to share."
As the unabbreviated name suggests, LTE-U is a means of utilising unlicensed spectrum for cellular communications. A promising candidate band for LTE-U is the 5 GHz band, which is also used for WiFi.
"Co-existence is paramount," Davis-Felner told Total Telecom. If it is not implemented correctly, LTE-U could be "brand-damagin g" to every player in the mobile and WiFi ecosystems, she said. Therefore it is crucial that LTE-U be properly standardised so that it does not interfere with WiFi.
While WiFi standards are developed by the IEEE, prospective standards for LTE-U are being considered by the 3GPP.
It is true that the 3GPP’s work overlaps with the IEEE’s when it comes to areas like seamless WiFi offload and WiFi calling, but LTE-U is "new for all of us," Davis-Felner said.
In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is also keen to ensure that LTE-U and WiFi play nicely together. At the beginning of May the regulator launched a consultation seeking industry input on the potential impact of LTE-U on other users of unlicensed spectrum, particularly the WiFi sector.
"We’re going to have to work together to figure it all out," Davis-Felner said.
"Three years from now it will be something we look back on and say, ‘that turned out alright’," she predicted. "But it is definitely on our mind as very hot topic in our industry."
