Open Technology Institute’s ‘Third Way’ for Spectrum Sharing

A new report by Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI), and Jessica Dine, a policy analyst at the Wireless Future Project and OTI, was featured in a Broadband Breakfast article. The report highlights the potential of low-power, indoor-only spectrum sharing beyond 6 GHz.

The New America Foundation has an idea for getting more users on the finite and increasingly congested supply of spectrum: low-power, indoor-only use.

The think tank’s Open Technology Institute proposed in a new report Monday considering allowing such use, which they call LPI, on an unlicensed or licensed-by-rule basis in bands already occupied by incumbents, particularly federal users. That could look like a blanket authorization or approving specific kinds of facilities that meet certain requirements, the report said.

OTI argued it could open up airwaves to factories, hospitals, high-traffic event venues while avoiding harmful interference to incumbents.