ITU INTERVIEWS @ WRC 23 Alex Roytblat, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Wi Fi Alliance
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WRC2023 Interview with Alex Roytblat, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Wi Fi Alliance
He is responsible for the organization’s overall regulatory strategy. In his role, Alex works with the Wi-Fi Alliance members and the executive team on the development of regulatory objectives and directs advocacy for the implementation of these objectives with governments, regulators and international organizations.With over 20 years of experience in the field of international telecom regulations, Alex is an internationally recognized industry advocate. Prior to joining Wi-Fi Alliance, Alex served at the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where he was involved in all phases of domestic and international radio spectrum management processes. Previously, Alex held technical roles for Stanford Telecommunications and Booz Allen & Hamilton. He holds a Master of Science in Communications Networks from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (Eta Kappa Nu) from George Mason University.
Teleprompter
Welcome to the World Radio Communication Conference 2023 WRC 23
being held in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates,
where I've got the great pleasure in Joined in the studio by Mr Alex Roy Blunt,
who is the vice president of regulatory affairs for the Wi Fi allowance.
Alex, welcome to the studio. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Now.
Perhaps we could talk a little bit about the Wi Fi alliance. What is it?
And why is WRC 23 important to it?
Well, Wi Fi Alliance is an organisation that essentially brings Wi Fi to the world.
We are providing the
advancing the technology and providing the seamless connectivity
that everyone enjoys with Wi Fi technology.
We also facilitate the certification of Wi Fi devices to ensure the compatibility.
Uh,
between the the latest device you may buy and and devices you may have had for years.
Uh, so, uh,
we have a number of certification programmes that ensure that compatibility
Wi
Fi Alliance has over 900 members around the world. And
so basically
every facet of the Wi Fi ecosystem is represented
in Wi Fi Alliance from our member companies.
Excellent
is all about spectrum allocation.
I wanted to ask you what spectrum areas are of interest to your association and
how do they impact the future development of Wi Fi services around the world?
I,
I think that this conference actually exemplifies the need
for Wi Fi because we have over 4000 delegates,
uh,
that are all enjoying the the Wi Fi connectivity.
And I can't even imagine how this conference would progress
in the absence of Wi Fi or if Wi Fi were under performing.
Uh,
so So I think it's truly amazing that we could gather
this many people from around the world and all of them
would be capable of, uh uh, getting this, uh,
this Wi Fi connectivity and the capability to participate in the conference.
But what's important for Wi Fi is that
over time, over the last 25 years,
WiFi has become an essential component of the telecom infrastructure.
And as such,
its performance is critically important for developed
countries as well as developing countries.
I think everyone in the world is relying on Wi Fi.
In fact, Wi Fi carries over 80% of the Internet traffic worldwide.
But to deliver this capability to deliver this connectivity,
Wi
Fi needs access to spectrum, especially in light of the fact that, uh,
we were seeing new use cases that require extremely high
data throughput
and extremely low latency,
uh,
to deliver this kind of connectivity WiFi needs access to to bandwidth or spectrum.
And at this conference in particular, uh, the conference is considering the,
uh, the future of the six gigahertz band.
Uh, as you may know, on their agenda, I don't want that, too.
Uh, six gigahertz is critically important to the future of Wi Fi because
this is where the the the Wi Fi is developing.
There is no alternative spectrum for Wi Fi technology.
Right now, Wi Fi is is moving forward.
We're deploying products, right? We have already over 2000 products on the market
with six gigahertz Wi Fi in them.
Every,
uh, flagship smartphone,
uh, has six gig
hertz, Wi Fi M.
Most of the routers that that you would buy right now, uh,
have Wi Fi television sets pretty much any appliance.
Uh, el electronic appliance that, uh, you would go for
would have a six gig hertz wi fi built in.
But to support that capability,
we need access to six gigahertz because that's where
the current generation of Wi Fi and future generation
of Wi Fi will deliver the ultimate performance.
And we are here to share with the world the
benefit of Wi Fi and to explain to the delegates
how important
making sure that the six GHz
is available for Wi Fi access is currently Wi
Fi is running on two specific spectrum bands.
Is that right?
Well, Wi Fi started out at 2.4 gigahertz, and, uh, then we moved on to five gigahertz.
But neither of those, uh uh, spectrum bands are
optimal for Wi Fi performance because they don't have the the bandwidth
that there are very limited number of channels at 2.4 and and,
uh, at five gigahertz as well.
And, of course, as an unlicensed technology.
Wi Fi shares, uh, spectrum with
all kinds of other
devices, including Bluetooth and
garage door openers and toys and all that you know, making it quite challenging.
Whereas six
Gard
offers this green field spectrum where Wi Fi can operate,
but importantly while protecting incumbent services, so
as we have seen at this conference
that there are a number of critically important
services in the six gigahertz bands such as satellites, fixed service and others,
and Wi Fi can coexist with these services.
They don't need to move out if Wi Fi moves in.
In fact,
Wi Fi operates in a way that protects them and doesn't encumber their operations.
I'm sure
there would be nobody who would disagree to say I want
nice, clean, clear, faultless,
seamless Wi Fi because I think that's one of the major complaints over this century
in terms of the future.
Is Wi Fi the technology,
the future when it comes to delivering connectivity on mobile devices?
Well,
yes, that is a very good question. So we are seeing a number of trends.
So as I already mentioned,
one trend is offloading most of the mobile
traffic on Wi Fi because when we're indoors,
our our phones automatically switch over to Wi Fi. Um, my phone is on Wi Fi.
I'm sure yours is as well
and and so, considering that we spend most of our lives indoors,
uh,
we spend most of our lives connected through Wi Fi and
and so Wi Fi is already delivering over 80% of traffic.
But we are seeing applications that are
coming online that require extremely low latencies,
like virtual reality
or artificial intelligence or cloud computing.
And those technologies cannot be supported or, in most case use cases.
They cannot be supported by a network that has connectivity
maybe several kilometres away from the end user.
Because simply propagation time from the base station to the
end user is too long for that low latency.
So these applications can only be delivered through local connectivity.
And Wi Fi is the ultimate solution for that, because everyone has it,
it is readily available, and it's quite inexpensive.
And so we are seeing a trend towards that type of connectivity
and
in terms of the outcomes of this conference,
are there any particular outcomes that you would like to see emerge from WC 23?
Well,
so we have already seen a number of countries
around the world take action on the six gig
Hertz band because they prioritise Wi Fi performance
and they understand that the future depends on Wi Fi connectivity.
So six gig Hertz is absolute priority for our industry,
and
we're hopeful that delegates at this conference will recognise
how important Wi Fi is
and would also prioritise Wi Fi access in the six year Hertz
by making the right decision
to to ensure that all technologies can operate in in six year,
including WiFi.
Alex Roy Blatt,
vice president of the regulatory affairs for the Wi Fi Let
thank you so much for joining us in the studio.
Well, thank you for having me. It was a pleasure speaking with you.
It's been fascinating. Thanks very much indeed. Thanks.
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