Initiative will see industry leading organisations and their members collaborate to drive innovation in unlicensed spectrum including TV white space

San Jose and Beaverton – October 15, 2015 – The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), the industry association focused on driving next generation Wi-Fi and its role in Public Wi-Fi services, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Converged Services, Smart Cities and 5G, and the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA), the Global Organisation advocating laws and regulation that will lead to more efficient and effective spectrum utilisation; today announced that they are to begin working together to promote and support the development of unlicensed wireless technologies, including TV white space.

The strategic partnership will see the development of mutual engagement between the two organisations and their members to use their combined efforts to drive forward and innovate in unlicensed, expanding the available spectrum as well as co-developing guidelines with the aim of ensuring interoperability within the ecosystem and promoting the usage of unlicensed wireless technologies at both the technical and regulatory level. Both organisations will also cooperate at their respective industry leading events; the DSA’s Global Summit (26-28 April 2016, Colombia) and WBA’s Wi-Fi Global Congress, currently underway in San Jose.

“The growing appetite for data, both for consumer use and, increasingly, in voice and IoT deployments, means that innovative solutions need to be explored to maximize the efficiency of wireless spectrum use. The combination of Wi-Fi and other unlicensed wireless technologies require effective spectrum utilization to provide the oxygen of future innovation,” said Shrikant Shenwai, CEO, Wireless Broadband Alliance. “The work undertaken by the WBA and the DSA will expedite the availability of a new generation of Internet access. With the collective strengths of our combined memberships, this partnership can act as a positive force for the development of – and innovation in – unlicensed.” “The Wi-Fi ecosystem is invaluable to connecting the next four billion consumers in emerging markets,” added H. Nwana, Executive Director, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance. “The partnership between the DSA and the WBA symbolises the true commitment we jointly hold to educate and promote the development and expansion of unlicensed wireless technologies to new non-traditional markets. This work will support Government’s with their economic growth and enable a new wave of startups to bring innovations in the unlicensed wireless ecosystem to the top of the agenda.”

In the past 20 years, radio technologies in unlicensed spectrum, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and ZigBee have been widely adopted. Access to unlicensed bands has enabled innovation and business deployment by entities ranging from the world’s largest companies to the smallest of startups.

For further information about the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance and the Wireless Broadband Alliance, please visit the websites www.dynamicspectrumalliance.org and wballiance.com.

About the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance
The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance is a global organization advocating for laws and regulations that will lead to more efficient and effective spectrum utilization. The DSA’s membership spans multinationals, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and academic, research, and other organizations from around the world, all working to create innovative solutions that will increase the amount of available spectrum to the benefit of consumers and businesses alike.

For more information, visit: www.dynamicspectrumalliance.org.

About Wireless Broadband Alliance
Founded in 2003, the mission of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) is to champion the development of the converged wireless broadband ecosystem through seamless, secure and interoperable unlicensed wireless broadband services for delivering outstanding user experience. Building on our heritage of NGH and carrier Wi-Fi, WBA will continue to drive and support the adoption of Next Gen Wi-Fi and other unlicensed wireless services across the entire public Wi-Fi ecosystem, including IoT, Big Data, Converged Services, Smart Cities, 5G, etc Today, membership includes major fixed operators such as BT, Comcast and Time Warner Cable; seven of the top 10 mobile operator groups (by revenue) and leading technology companies such as Cisco, Microsoft, Huawei Technologies, Google and Intel. WBA member operators collectively serve more than 2 billion subscribers and operate more than 25 million hotspots globally. The WBA Board includes AT&T, Boingo Wireless, BT, China Telecom, Cisco Systems, Comcast, iPass, KT Corporation, Liberty Global, NTT DOCOMO, Orange and Ruckus Wireless.

For more information, visit: wballiance.com

For media enquiries
For the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, please contact Sian Borrill by emailing sian.borrill@proactive-pr.com or by calling +44 (0)1636 812152.

For the Wireless Broadband Alliance, please contact Edward Howson by emailing ed.howson@temono.com or by calling +44 (0)2070 898 896