Liberty Global and CableLabs have joined the MulteFire Alliance, an independent consortium dedicated to developing standards to ensure that next-generation LTE mobile standards are compatible with shared and unlicensed spectrum, including Wi-Fi, important to cable operators who will use hotspots to support their mobile services..
“This step will arm the cable industry with a new wireless technology that builds on our success in providing Wi-Fi and mobile services,” said Ralph Brown, CTO of CableLabs.
MulteFire will operate entirely in unlicensed or shared spectrum, so that cable operators without licensed mobile spectrum can use Wu-Fi to support mobile network services and access.
“By joining the MulteFire Alliance, we are driving the future of wireless for our customers,” said said Balan Nair, CTO of Liberty Global.
Currently, the MulteFire Alliance is working to adapt 3GPP-based mobile wireless standards for shared and unlicensed spectrum so that the technology is broadly available and fairly coexists with Wi-Fi and other technologies.
Significantly, MulteFire does not require users to own licensed spectrum at all. The advantages are obvious for any mobile service provider hoping to use a “Wi-Fi-first” access method.
With a big footprint of hotspots, a mobile service provider using wholesale mobile network access could save money by directly reducing the amount of wholesale bandwidth it has to purchase.
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