MulteFire is Making Global Strides: From CTIA in Vegas to Broadband World Forum in London

By Neville Meijers, VP, Business Development Qualcomm Technologies Inc.

Last month, I attended CTIA Super Mobility in Las Vegas to share details around the MulteFire Alliance and participate in discussions focused on the future of wireless technology. This was the MulteFire Alliance’s first booth presence at a tradeshow, which proved to be a great venue for meeting with attendees and sharing use case demonstrations of MulteFire technology.

Pictured Above: MulteFire Alliance Booth at CTIA Super Mobility 

I also had the opportunity to participate in an engaging panel discussion as part of the Tower & Small Cell Summit: Wi-Fi and LTE Coexistence in Unlicensed Bands: Carrier-grade Wi-Fi, Mobile Offload, Hotspot 2.0, LAA Networks and MulteFire. Moderated by Randall Schwartz, Wireless 20/20, the panel featured fellow MulteFire Alliance members – Art King, Director of Enterprise Services & Technologies, SpiderCloud Wireless and Jim Rydberg, Head of Solutions Architecture, Small Cells, Nokia – along with Kevin Robinson, VP of Marketing for the Wi-Fi Alliance™.

During the panel, we discussed MulteFire’s work toward providing a new wireless connectivity option for unlicensed and shared spectrum that that delivers the neutral host capabilities of Wi-Fi with the performance advantages of LTE. I covered the potential applications and use cases for MulteFire technology, from standalone private IoT networks to indoor, neutral host networks, and explained how MulteFire can enhance coverage and capacity for operators in specific geographic areas.

In terms of coexistence in the unlicensed bands, we discussed how MulteFire will work alongside Wi-Fi in unlicensed bands like 5 GHz, as both are founded upon the same ‘Listen before Talk’ principal. While there may be applications for LTE-TDD in the future for the U.S. CBRS 3.5 GHz band, MulteFire is a viable alternative, able to coexist with LAA and better scale as the number of deployments grow.

Now we’re taking the discussion to the Broadband World Forum in London. MulteFire Alliance Board Chair Stephan Litjens will be speaking on the panel Satisfying the Industry’s Need for Seamless Connectivity at 2pm on Wednesday, October 19. The MulteFire Alliance will also be showing technology demonstrations in Booth C10 in Hall S6. To schedule a meeting during the show, email press@multefire.org. We hope to see you in London.