Comcast: Crucial for Government to Free Up More Unlicensed Wireless

Comcast senior VP Thomas Nagel plans to tell a Senate Communications Subcommittee panel that getting more unlicensed spectrum is crucial to cable and the country.

"Further growth in data consumption via unlicensed technologies simply cannot occur unless service providers have access to more unlicensed spectrum," he says, according to a copy of his testimony for a June 4 hearing on the State of Wireless Communications. Nagel argues that setting aside more unlicensed wireless or loosening the regulations on unlicensed "does not mean undermining licensed technologies." He praises the Federal Communications Commission's proposals to make it easier to deploy next-generation unlicensed technology in the 5 GHz band, and the incentive auction proposal that includes unlicensed set-asides.