Comment on Senate GOP budget bill has little-noticed provision that could hurt your Wi-Fi
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 6 days agoThe 6GHz band was used before it was used for WiFi. Frequencies can be reassigned, and they get reassigned on a regular basis.
It’s a pretty stupid thing to do that has no use other than annoying random people, but it the WiFi equipment industry can’t deal with changes like these, they need to get their act together. Samsung and Comcast will be fine, and grandma just needs to install her updates like she should be doing anyway.
Winthrowe@lemmy.ca 5 days ago
Uses of licensed frequencies can and do get reassigned but I have not heard of a situation where the genie got put back in the bottle by re-licensing formerly unlicensed bands.
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 1 day ago
I think it’s a similar situation to the weather radars and sattelite receivers that are getting broken as more and more components of 5G are rolled out: these industries didn’t think the regulators would be so monumentally stupid as to reassign frequencies like that. Normal politics gives years of heads up before dramatic changes like these take place, but it’s been a while since normal politics have been practiced.
As for unlicensed bands themselves, I believe here in Europe several of them got moved around a bit, though that was mostly small bands that were used for devices that have since (i.e. more than 10 years ago) been altered to use Bluetooth and WiFi and other such technologies, essentially freeing up the spectrum. Someone using their thirty year old room broadcast microphone or wireless handset may be technically committing a crime, but I doubt the impact will ever register on a scale large enough to set off any investigations.
My point is that devices can and should support these kinds of regulation changes. Allowing your customers to comply with the law while using your hardware is part of their corporate responsibility.
Midnitte@beehaw.org 5 days ago
Exactly.