Some 58 companies and associations, including members of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, have signed a letter calling for unlicensed access to the full band, putting them in direct conflict with telecom operators lobbying for exclusive licensed mobile use.
“Without additional Wifi spectrum, European businesses will be less globally competitive due to higher wireless connectivity costs and less access to new technologies,” the letter warns.
The letter, addressed to EU Executive VP Henna Virkkunen, argues that Wifi is essential for affordable, high-speed indoor connectivity and warns that Europe risks falling behind other regions in deploying the latest Wifi standards, including Wifi 6E and Wifi 7.
The group says reserving the upper 6GHz band for Wifi would support applications such as industrial IoT, smart logistics and remote healthcare, while complementing investment in fibre, 5G and satellite networks.
“Essential infrastructures and services, such as hospitals and universities, rely heavily on Wifi to continue advancing the well-being of patients or the learning opportunities of students,” the signatories wrote.
“Going in the wrong direction on upper 6GHz will stunt the development of new applications across these use cases.”
The European Commission’s Radio Spectrum Policy Group is currently weighing how to allocate the upper 6GHz band (6.425–7.125GHz), with Wifi advocates and telco operators competing for access.
Among the letter’s signatories are Vincent Garnier, director general of the FTTH Council Europe, All Digital CEO David Mekkaoui, and RealBroadband co-founder Denise Diggin, joining 55 other industry representatives under the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance umbrella.
They argue that Europe lags behind other regions in deploying the latest Wifi standards and say full access to the upper 6GHz band would finally allow widespread rollout of Wifi 6E, 7, and eventually Wifi 8.
“We have one simple request for the EU: make the upper 6GHz band (6.425–7.125GHz) available for unrestrained Wifi operations,” the letter states.
“Ultimately, the Digital Networks Act, the review of the European Electronic Communications Code and the 2030 Digital Decade targets will be key in fulfilling Europe’s promise of competitiveness and becoming an AI continent. In this pursuit, we transmit to you the industry’s view: Wifi matters.”
The Wifi industry’s push brings it into direct conflict with Europe’s major telecom operators, including Orange, Vodafone and BT Group, who last month called on regulators to reserve the entire upper 6GHz band for licensed mobile use to support the rollout of 6G.
The telco-focused firms warned that sharing the band with unlicensed technologies could fragment the global 6G ecosystem and jeopardise Europe’s digital competitiveness.
