“Bandwidth” is a term people toss around a lot these days. Instead of saying “I’m busy,” they’ll say they “don’t have the bandwidth.” And in many ways, the metaphor fits. Like time and attention, bandwidth is a limited resource. Think of a radio frequency: each one can only handle so much before it gets overloaded. Once that limit is hit, signals drop, quality suffers, or nothing gets through at all. That’s what people really mean when they talk about bandwidth—they’re already operating at full frequency, and there’s no more room to tune anything else in.
This idea of limited capacity isn’t just a metaphor. It’s how actual bandwidth works in the world of communications. The electromagnetic spectrum, which carries everything from radio and TV signals to cellular data and Wi-Fi, has a finite number of usable frequencies. To prevent interference, the government regulates how that spectrum is divided and assigns different frequency ranges for specific uses. It can also auction off portions of the spectrum to private companies, who then build their networks, such as mobile or satellite communications, on top of that space. Just like your personal bandwidth, there’s only so much to go around, and managing it well is critical to keeping everything running smoothly.
When it comes to WiFi signals, there might not be ways to create new bandwidth but there is an option to make more available to the public. Back in 2020, the FCC adopted new rules that allowed unlicensed use of a new spectrum of WiFi signal called 6 gigahertz (technically it is everything between 5.925 and 7.125 gigahertz but 6 GHz is much catchier). This new spectrum gave internet providers and systems administrators more options for providing WiFi at high speeds with low latency since there was less congestion on this frequency.
Many figured that the new bandwidth would be enough for most of our needs but a new study shows that in certain situations,we still don’t have enough bandwidth to provide the kinds of internet connection that people have come to expect. A recent study by CableLabs simulated a 12-story residential building with 12 units per floor to see how the WiFi could hold up to the demand. What it found was that, thanks to the increasing number of connected devices, “consumers in dense residential environments are likely to experience widespread and significant Wi-Fi performance degradation, indicating near-term spectrum exhaustion based on growing demand.”
In the scenario about 30 percent of customers would experience WiFi latency of more than 10 milliseconds, providing sub-standard service, particularly for those with heavy data needs like video calls or videogames. The answer, according to the study, is to add even more bandwidth to the public realm: “Without more unlicensed spectrum in the pipeline, full utilization of existing Wi-Fi spectrum will result in degraded performance of applications and services that rely on Wi-Fi as the workhorse of modern connectivity.”
CableLabs has a clear motive for conducting this study. One of its subsidiaries, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, has been a strong advocate for expanding unlicensed WiFi spectrum through FCC auctions. So far, the Trump administration hasn’t announced any plans to release more WiFi frequencies to the public. However, Trump has shown a general willingness to deregulate government-controlled airwaves. It was during his first term that the FCC decided to open up the 6 GHz band.
Without regulatory support, large buildings will have to find their own solutions to meet growing WiFi demands. One approach is to coordinate channel assignments so that neighboring units share the same channel, reducing interference. In the CableLabs study, each unit was randomly assigned a channel, with care taken to ensure that no two adjacent units used the same one. Another strategy is to configure routers to use narrower channel widths, which can help minimize overlap and interference. Smart networks can also dynamically adjust frequencies to better distribute the data load across the building.
As our connected devices become more advanced, our demand for data grows with them. More data requires more bandwidth, but bandwidth is a limited resource. Unless the FCC opens up additional WiFi spectrum for commercial use, buildings will need to find smarter ways to deliver the level of internet access we’ve come to expect. In the future, we may see more whole-building WiFi systems designed to strategically manage and distribute bandwidth. With any luck, when it’s time to build better networks, building owners and managers will actually have the bandwidth—both technical and mental—to make it happen.
