Talking Cars, 5G, and Wi-Fi: Time to Get More Mileage from the Car Band

The Obama Administration’s proposal to mandate a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system in all new cars is reportedly on life support at the more deregulatory Trump Department of Transportation (DOT).  A V2V signaling mandate has been criticized as outdated, costly, and lengthy; it could take 20 years or more to become fully effective.

Safety aside, the high-tech and auto industries have been on a collision course over access to the increasingly valuable–but still vacant–public airwaves reserved for Intelligent Transportation Services (ITS) back in 1999.  Although V2V safety signaling (DSRC) will use only a portion of the 5.9 GHz band, DOT’s indecision has stalled the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) proposal to pave the road for super-fast Wi-Fi by allowing unlicensed devices to share the large but unused ITS band.

The latest twist in this saga is the emergence of a direct alternative to DSRC–cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X)–that can piggyback the 5G general-purpose networks that mobile carriers are planning to deploy in the years ahead and leverage for many other car-connectivity services. 

Our speakers will provide updates on this debate, including the trajectory of auto safety technologies and why extending the adjacent unlicensed spectrum band into 5.9 GHz is key to creating the “wider pipe” required for gigabit Wi-Fi networks. 

As background, read our report or watch FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel speak at our previous event on C-SPAN.

Lunch will be served. 

Follow the conversation online using #WiFiMileage and following @OTI. 

Roger Lanctot, @rogermud
Director of Automotive Connected Mobility, Strategy Analytics

Danielle Pineres, @DaniellePineres
Vice President & Associate General Counsel, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association 

Mary Brown, @MaryBrownindc
Senior Director of Government Affairs, Cisco 

Marc Scribner, @marcscribner
Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Michael Calabrese, @MCalabreseNAF
Director, Wireless Future Project, New America’s Open Technology Institute

Moderator:

Tara Jeffries, @tjjeffries3
Tech and Telecom Reporter, Bloomberg Law