3 ms·

Much of the EM spectrum is licensed. 2.4GHz is one of the 'unlicensed' bands set aside for consumer electronics, meaning no special permit is required to create

Much of the EM spectrum is licensed. 2.4GHz is one of the 'unlicensed' bands set aside for consumer electronics, meaning no special permit is required to create something that uses radio within it. That's the gist of it. Different radio frequencies have different ranges and propogation effects depending on local weather conditions, absorbtion by humidity etc. Generally high-frequency radio is short range but high bandwidth, which is perfectly suited to what consumers want.

scrooched_moose 9y ago
To add, the US Department of Commerce puts out a great graphic [1] showing how the spectrum is split up. The only bands available are labeled "Amateur" in a greenish box. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/United_States_Frequency_Allocations_Chart_2016_-_The_Radio_Spectrum.pdf https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/United_S...
- vidanay 9y ago
  The green amateur bands are in no way "available". Those are the Amateur (Ham) Radio bands. N9NAY
  - soundwave106 9y ago
    The bands typically thought of as "available to electronics" (meaning available without a license) are designated on that chart as ISM bands. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISM_band https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISM_band) This doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule all the time (eg some wireless runs at 5Ghz I believe, a bit off from the 5.8Ghz ISM band.) I believe WiGig is roughly centered around the ISM 61Ghz band though.