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Unlicensed spectrum doesn't mean unregulated. It just means individual users of devices don't need operator licenses. To facilitate that operations in unlicensed bands have regulatory operating limits. Devices are under the general rules covering harmful interference (don't cause it), accepting interference from licensed operations (you must accept it), and basic electronic device regulations.


But a corporate player or players can deploy a lot of devices that individually comply and eat up a lot of the available bandwidth, making personal applications like Wifi less functional. And moreover: once there’s a financial incentive to do this (which really resilient mesh networks will provide) the financial incentives to use this bandwidth may be much greater than they have been historically, and saying “well it hasn’t happened yet so it won’t be a problem” offers very little predictive value. This is my concern, and I am open to being convinced that the regulations in place will prevent this. So far none of the comments in this thread have given me a convincing reason not to worry, though it’s helpful that someone actually posted the (individual device) transmission limits.




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