Wi-Fi industry is worried about mobile invading its airwaves

License Assisted Access, also know as LTE-Unlicensed, would tap into the same frequencies Wi-Fi relies on for to deliver its wireless connections, and Wi-Fi advocates are scared the new 4G will muscle out wireless LANs when pitted head to head. LAA would act much like a Wi-Fi network, but instead of transmitting a Wi-Fi signal in the 5 GHz band it uses LTE. Carriers then combine these LAA signals with their regular 4G transmissions, creating much fatter data connections for smartphones and tablets.

Carriers, however, face the same rules as other unlicensed band users in the band. They have to transmit at low power so LAA is really only good for indoor scenarios, and they also have to play nice with other users -- i.e. they can’t drown out your home router. Consequently the same interference detection and channel selection technology built into Wi-Fi access points are built into LAA.

So what’s the problem then? The wireless LAN industry’s big trade group, the Wi-Fi Alliance, worries that that carriers will have an edge in the unlicensed bands because their networks are centrally managed. Wi-Fi networks, on the other had, tend to be a patchwork of access points and routers all operating independently but miraculously managing to cooperate. Introducing a centrally controlled and scheduled LAA network into that mix could mess up that mojo.