FCC : one-gigabit Wi-Fi soon.

[Geek-9pm]

This is posted in Other. 
Not really news. Not yet. And it is for the USA, not hte4 UK or Europe.
The full title in the  The Register is:
FCC doubles 5GHz spectrum in prep for one-gigabit Wi-Fi
Full Story

...US Federal Communications Commission have unanimously voted to loosen the rules governing the operation of Wi-Fi devices operating in the 5GHz band.

"The new rules will make 100MHz of spectrum more accessible for use in homes and congested spaces like convention centers, parks, and airports and increase the potential for more unlicensed spectrum innovation," the FCC   ...

This can mean more people in the USA can have Internet without paying high prices. A significant minority of the USA population can not ford overpriced cell phones and Internet connections.(Read: iPhone and AT&T)  Think about it. With Wallchart selling decent Android tablets for $99, and less for smartphones, the Internet will become more available for all when the new FCC thing gets going.

[camerongray]

While 1gbps WiFi will be great, how can you say that this will allow people to "have Internet without paying high prices" and something about cheap Smartphones?

The entire article is about WiFi which is totally separate from the cost of an internet connection.

[Geek-9pm]

camerongray,
Right, that was my interpretation. And I am likely wrong. Just now local news from San Francisco said that AT&T will make Cupertino  the first city to get Gigabit Wi-Fi.
Cupertno to High-Speed Internet.

AT&T hopes to offer the service to Cupertino residents as early as December, or early next year, Ken McNeeley, president of AT&T's California operations, said Tuesday. The company hopes to to roll out service to other Bay Area cities early in 2015 and to San Jose in the first half of next year, he said.
...

So yeah,  I go it wrong. It is not about humanity, it is about money. Again. 

[patio]

That has no bearing on what they are gonna charge for it whatsoever...

[camerongray]

This is about WiFi which is totally separate from connections to homes.  That link about Cupertino is talking about Gigabit fibre connections which are totally different from WiFi.  WiFi is what you would use in your own home, not as a medium of getting the internet connection to your home.

I would love Gigabit WiFi (I currently only have 150mbps WiFi and use CAT5e cable for a Gigabit connection to hardwired PCs) but this is totally separate from the FTTC VDSL connection I get from my ISP.

What do you mean it's not about humanity, it's about money?  Of course ISPs want to make money but things like high speed fibre connections are great for consumers who are requiring faster and faster connections.  I much prefer that my ISP is spending money to get high speed FTTC connections over more and more streets rather than putting that effort into providing cheaper, slow DSL services.

[Geek-9pm]

That has no bearing on what they are gonna charge for it whatsoever...

Fair.
I need to clarify one thing. The FCC proposal is NOT the same as what AT&T and Comcast are rolling out. In fact, it is a conflict. It is as if AT&T and Comcast  were mocking what the FCC wants.

FCC wants wireless.
AT&T is  going fiber.

The fiber cabinetwork the big guys want will cost untold millions of dollars to implement. Bat the FCC proposal can offer wireless to a small city  a fraction of the cost of the fiber network. Yeah,  that is what I say. The articles  cited do not address this apparent conflict.

Maybe, conjecture for sure, The big guys are reacting to the FCC by coming out with their own money-sucking plans before anybody can implement what the FCC offers to the public. Wait and see.

[patio]

Geek ...you need to understand 1 simple concept::
The FCC does NOT sell access services to the Public.

[camerongray]

FCC wants wireless.
AT&T is  going fiber.

*sigh* They are totally different things.  Noone is "mocking" anyone.

WiFi has been around for ages and is used to connect computers to an internet connection wirelessly , it was never designed as a way to connect a premises to the internet!

FCC does not "want" wireless - They are improving Wireless standards so that people can connect devices to their local networks at gigabit speeds wirelessly over short distances.  Fibre on the other hand is used to give a primary internet connection to a building - This is how connections have worked for ages.

In fact, I imagine the FCC would rather wireless technologies were not somehow used to deliver connections to peoples homes as if every home had some sort of high power wireless system to go over long range, interference would be crazy (It's bad enough that I live within range of 10 different access points which are all fairly low power)

To put it simply:
Wires such as Fibre or Copper - Used to get the internet connection from the ISP to your home/business
Wireless - Used to connect devices to the internet inside your home/business

Take my connection for example - The connection comes from the ISP to the street cabinet over fibre and is then delivered into my flat over copper cable from the cabinet, I then have a router and Wireless access point to provide a wired and wireless internet connection to my devices.  At no point is wireless used to deliver a connection from my ISP to my flat (how would that even work given the range of WiFi and issues with interference).

[Geek-9pm]

This thread has the potential to become rather complicated.
First of all, we are talking about gigabit speeds. Having a gigabit connection for the Internet is a very new idea. Think about it. What services at the present time, even offer 100 Mb Internet service?
I will make a confession. The two articles I quoted are not complete explanations of what's going on here. There has been considerable research done on the use of the superhigh frequency spectrum. The results indicate that it is possible, even practical, to use the super high frequencies for a very reliable long-distance communication. This flies in the face of the consists suitable amount of engineering experience and opinion to the contrary. Much of the research was done by the military. But let's not go into that at this time.
We are talking about the use of super high frequencies for gigabit transmission to users who have unlicensed devices in their homes or their laptops. The potential is that someone could go to a public place, let's say, a national park, and through the areas of the park that are readily accessible. One could take a laptop with an appropriate wireless adapter and get Wi-Fi throughout the park.
It has always been assumed that Wi-Fi always means low-power short-range communication. That is not strictly true. The gigabit wireless thing is still in its infancy, at this point, it's difficult to see which way it's going to go. It has the potential of doing some damage to the big companies who favor the use of fiber optics instead of super high frequencies.
For now, I'm not going to introduce links to a lot of different articles on the subject. I will leave that to others who wish to read comments. The point is this: the wireless Inter gigabit technology will bring about some changes that are hard to predict at this moment. In my opinion, along with some others, this will put pressure on the big companies to improve their services for the general good. Well, at least that's what I'm hoping.
Patio, yes, the SEC does not sell access rights to the public. Exactly how unlicensed users will be able to use long-range wireless devices without paying fees has not yet been determined.

[camerongray]

You are totally missing the point here.  Do you even know what "gigabit" means?  Look at Wireless G vs Wireless N, G was 54mbps, Wireless N can go up to 600mbps depending on the equipment used.  This is exactly the same here, only difference is that this new standard will be faster than Wireless N currently is!

This thread has the potential to become rather complicated.

This thread should have been very simple, you made it complicated by guessing what you posted was actually about.

Having a gigabit connection for the Internet is a very new idea.

This has NOTHING to do with a gigabit connection to the internet!  It will give a gigabit connection to the local network, the speed of the internet connection has nothing to do with it.  For example, my internet connection gives 73mbps down, 18mbps up speeds.  My WiFi network is 150mbps connection but my connection to the internet is still only 73/18!

The article talks about Gigabit WiFi - This is WiFi that is used in homes to connect computers to a local network, this is not a technology to provide an internet connection to those homes, that is still the job of cables (either fibre or copper)!

Gigabit is referring to the transfer speed and has nothing to do with the range!  Your example about national parks and other public WiFi networks would not benefit from this technology.  Any public WiFi system will use several access points to provide connections over the area, not a single extremely powerful one!

[Geek-9pm]

Gigabit Internet over wide area Wi-Fi.
Not hear here yet. Coming soon. Maybe.
About two years earlier:

Chairman Genachowski said, “American economic history teaches a clear lesson about infrastructure. If we build it, innovation will come. The U.S. needs a critical mass of gigabit communities nationwide so that innovators can develop next-generation applications and services that will drive economic growth
and global competitiveness.”

He meant Internet, not just  Intranet.

[BC_Programmer]

Gigabit Internet over wide area Wi-Fi.
Not hear here yet. Coming soon. Maybe.
About two years earlier:He meant Internet, not just  Intranet.

Quote comes from here. A statement issued in January 2013. It is about connection speeds for connection backbones.

It does not involve Wi-Fi. The word "Wi-Fi" nor '802.11' appears in the statement anywhere.

Gigabit wifi would mean faster routers, and a new 802.11 standard. (802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g(54mbps, dual band 108mbps), 802.11n (300mbps, Dual-band 600mbps) and the new standard which will provide 1000mbps over Wifi.

Wifi is not used by service providers to provide internet connectivity to either homes or businesses. Wifi routers and access points are used downstream from the wire to provide wireless access to that wired broadband connection. It is a rather simple concept and I think somebody would have to be either uninformed, thick or disingenuous to misunderstand it.

[Geek-9pm]

Wifi is not used by service providers to provide internet connectivity to either homes or businesses.

It is used by ISP.  Google Digital Path.
or
Call 1-800-676-7284

For more than 10 years, DigitalPath has been delivering the full power of the Internet to families throughout California and Nevada.

Which is not new. What is new is now that can move up to Gigabit.

[camerongray]

It is used by ISP.  Google Digital Path.
or
Call 1-800-676-7284Which is not new. What is new is now that can move up to Gigabit.

According to their website they use line of sight, point-to-point microwave links, not WiFi...

[Geek-9pm]

According to their website they use line of sight, point-to-point microwave links, not WiFi...

WiFi, is a wireless technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data or connect to the internet using 2.4 GHz UHF and 5 GHz SHF bands.
I just talked to them. I used to h ave an account. They use the upper band of Wi-Fi and their SID is visible on a stock wireless router. But you have  to have a device that can do VPN, which they provide. VPN does not change the frequency used. It is still inside the Wi-Fi bands The range is over a mile. Even so, it can be used in rural areas under dial conditions. It is not a mobile service. And presently it is only 20 megabit service.

Back to topic. Gigabit Wi-Fi opens the door for Gigabit Internet.  If it comes soon, it may slow down the progress of AT&T and Comcast in some areas. IMO the FCC does intend it to be used for Internet outdoors over a wide area. To make it a mobile service, much higher power will be needed. But that is more of a legal issue , not a technical problem. 

EDIT: Also, some small cities offer wide area Wi-Fi in some parts of the town. It is called Municipal Wi-Fi and has a range way greater above  indoor service.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_wireless_network