WiFu Statement on Wi-Fi Alliance LTE-U Coexistence Test Plan

The Wi-Fi Alliance, a broad-based industry group, released its LTE-U coexistence test plan yesterday amidst complaints from the cellular industry, notably T-Mobile and Nokia, that the process is taking too long and is biased against the use of LTE licensed technologies on unlicensed spectrum bands.  LTE-U proponents serve on the Wi-Fi Alliance board and late last year asked the group to convene a collaborative process to test whether LTE-U would unduly disrupt millions of existing Wi-Fi deployments in businesses, public places, schools and homes across the country. 

 In response to a FCC Public Notice last year, New America's Open Technology Institute (OTI) and other public interest groups warned that Verizon and other mobile carriers have every incentive to use LTE-U to undermine Wi-Fi, thereby squelching competition from Wi-Fi first carriers and charging subscribers for video and other data traffic that consumers now receive free or at minimal cost over unlicensed bands by using Wi-Fi.

 The following statement can be attributed to Michael Calabrese, director of OTI’s Wireless Future Project:

Consumer advocates are heartened to hear the Wi-Fi Alliance has completed its LTE-U coexistence test plan.  However, it is alarming to hear that compromises on the test plan within this industry group could leave 50% of Wi-Fi connections at risk of disruption from LTE-U.

It is also unfortunate that cellular industry proponents of using LTE on unlicensed spectrum are now threatening to pull back from Wi-Fi coexistence testing they initially proposed and supported. 

We call on the FCC to ensure that all implementations of unlicensed LTE devices pass the entire test and coexist fairly with Wi-Fi. The test results will help the FCC decide if LTE-U, which will be controlled from licensed spectrum bands, can coexist with Wi-Fi, the unlicensed technology that has proven critical to schools, consumers and the U.S. economy as it carries 80 percent of all mobile device data traffic.