Whereas nonetheless two years away, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Video games (LA28) will place large calls for on wi-fi networks, and the time to arrange is now. A crucial function on the video games can be performed by Wi-Fi, which might want to exploit the complete 1200MHz of 6GHz unlicensed spectrum between 5.925 and seven.125GHz to fulfill demand.
Policymakers ought to defend and help optimum use of this band to make sure wi-fi efficiency, availability and predictability for spectators, athletes, broadcasters, venue workers, transport programs, inns, airports and the broader customer financial system through the Video games. Wi-Fi’s function enhances the significance of CBRS networks, which may also be used for localized community wants, as mentioned in a earlier article.
The mobile business might cite the Olympics as a motive to alter the standing of components of the 6GHz band, both quickly or completely. Such calls for can be unreasonable and non-evidence-based. Policymakers ought to ignore any such proposals – not least as a result of no suitably functioning 6GHz 5G ecosystem might be prepared by mid-2028 anyway.
LA28 can be an enormous occasion for wi-fi
The Video games will happen throughout 40+ competitors venues and lots of different places, principally in Larger Los Angeles, but additionally elsewhere in Southern California and some different US areas, together with Oklahoma Metropolis. There may also be official fan zones, unofficial gatherings, hospitality websites, media compounds and non permanent amenities.
As well as, there could also be upwards of two million worldwide guests coming to the US for the Olympics, principally arriving by way of airports and staying in inns or rental properties.
Taken collectively, the Video games will create large wi-fi calls for at venues and throughout California and the broader US customer atmosphere. Connectivity can be wanted by:
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Broadcasters and media, utilizing cameras, laptops, drones, smartphones and specialist manufacturing gadgets.
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Spectators utilizing smartphones, tablets and maybe wearable gadgets or AR headsets, usually importing photographs and video.
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Athletes, coaches and different workers, utilizing wi-fi tools for coaching and private / crew social-media use
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Venue personnel from organizers, retailers and safety workers, utilizing a wide range of wi-fi gadgets reminiscent of telephones, fee terminals, handhelds and ticket gates
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Transit autos, shuttles and media buses, with connectivity wanted inside autos in addition to at stops and hubs.
Many gadgets reminiscent of laptops want Wi-Fi connectivity as they lack mobile radios. Moreover, most customers – particularly worldwide guests constrained by costly roaming, or kids with out flat-rate cell knowledge – anticipate Wi-Fi to have widespread availability and good efficiency.
California can credibly declare to be one of many non secular houses of Wi-Fi. Main Wi-Fi chip distributors reminiscent of Broadcom, Intel and Qualcomm are California-based. Linksys was initially primarily based in Irvine, exterior LA. Apple, which helped popularize Wi-Fi for customers, relies in Silicon Valley, alongside enterprise Wi-Fi leaders HPE and Cisco. Cisco can also be one of many Olympics’ designated know-how sponsors.
That creates a possibility. LA28 ought to showcase Wi-Fi as a serious US innovation success story, not deal with it as expendable spectrum collateral for speculative mobile lobbying.
Why 6GHz is crucial for Wi-Fi
The 6GHz band has been out there within the US on a license-exempt foundation for indoor Wi-Fi use for a number of years. 6GHz-capable consumer gadgets and entry factors have progressively entered the market since round 2021 and at the moment are changing into mainstream, though some telco ISPs, together with key CTIA members, have been gradual to help 6GHz in residence routers and gateways.
6GHz provides important capability to the congested 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands. It gives clear spectrum supporting as much as seven 160MHz channels, or three 320MHz channels. Meaning extra high-speed lanes for wi-fi visitors and extra scope for non-overlapping channels in massive buildings, venues, inns, media facilities, airports and dense city environments.
The FCC has additionally expanded the sensible usability of the band. It added entry for outside areas below automated frequency coordination, or AFC, programs, very low energy (VLP) for accent and wearable gadgets, and extra just lately enabled geofenced variable energy (GVP) for higher-power use instances in outlined areas. AFC permits standard-power Wi-Fi to coexist with incumbent customers reminiscent of broadcast-related functions and sure industrial wi-fi programs.
By 2028, the share of 6GHz-capable gadgets within the Olympic fan base and neighborhood must be even increased than it’s as we speak. Nearly all top-tier smartphones, and a rising share of mid-range gadgets, already help the band. By the Video games, most iPhones in energetic use, plus a big proportion of Android gadgets, are anticipated to be 6GHz-capable. Given the doubtless socio-economic profile of many Olympic guests, a big majority are prone to carry trendy higher-tier gadgets. One notable exception can be some guests from China or Hong Kong, the place Beijing has chosen to allocate 6GHz spectrum to mobile carriers moderately than opening up the band for Wi-Fi.
Equally, the laptops and tablets utilized by media, officers, sponsors, visitors and different “enterprise” customers on the Olympics are prone to be trendy and well-specified, doubtlessly with Wi-Fi 7 or 8, and 6GHz help. If XR gadgets are used, they’re additionally prone to both embed trendy Wi-Fi internally or hyperlink by way of smartphones.
An essential consideration is that the Port of Lengthy Seaside’s operational networks and all kinds of broadcast and media gadgets might use components of the 6GHz band for specialised functions. Wi-Fi wants entry to the broadest sensible width of the 6GHz band in order that venue-by-venue constraints don’t flip into capability shortfalls.
6GHz wouldn’t be helpful for 5G on the LA28 Olympics anyway
Localized and low-power networks can be a crucial a part of the general wi-fi panorama for Olympic operations and spectators. However regardless of the clear worth of Wi-Fi, organizations reminiscent of CTIA have began suggesting that components of the 6GHz band must be modified from unlicensed use to high-power unique 5G use by cell operators. They might use obscure references to projected Olympics-related demand to justify this proposal.
However even when regulators urgently reclaimed 6GHz from unlicensed use, both for a rushed public sale or non permanent Olympic-specific licenses, it could be nearly ineffective for LA28.
This isn’t only a matter of spectrum licensing and certain course of and authorized challenges. It is usually concerning the lack of a longtime ecosystem or correct pipeline for US-suitable community tools, chipsets and gadgets, and, particularly, an absence of smartphones.
There are at the moment no mass-market smartphones out there within the US that help 6GHz 5G, identified in 3GPP requirements as band n104. That’s unlikely to alter materially earlier than the Olympics, particularly given the same old launch cycles of Apple iPhones and Google Pixel fashions in September or October, after the Video games.
Some 6GHz-capable 5G gadgets might emerge from Chinese language or different Asian suppliers, however these are unlikely to be offered in significant numbers within the US by 2028. They may also have restricted penetration into the worldwide customer base by the point of LA28.
On the community provider facet, the principle advocate to be used of the higher 6GHz band for 5G is Chinese language vendor Huawei, which made an announcement of its community product vary in March 2026 – and is in any case banned from use within the US. Nokia has demonstrated a single radio unit in trials, but it surely doesn’t at the moment have a industrial vary of programs. Ericsson has acknowledged that it used a “pre-commercial radio” but additionally doesn’t have clear n104 help. There’s additionally no apparent help for 6GHz 5G from the suppliers of in-building wi-fi programs, which might be wanted for most of the Olympic venues.
In different phrases, there may be basically zero chance of the LA2028 Olympics that includes 6GHz 5G for regular utilization, past tiny trials designed for press releases, not capability for spectators.
Conclusion
There isn’t a doubt that 5G mobile know-how can be essential at LA28, throughout the outside wide-area atmosphere and inside venues. Carriers and distributors will doubtless use the Video games to showcase new options and providers.
However these will work in parallel to Wi-Fi (usually counting on the power to “offload” from mobile onto Wi-Fi) and can’t substitute for it. Guests, athletes and media will anticipate good Wi-Fi efficiency within the venues, at their inns, within the airports and in numerous bars, eating places and different websites. Utilizing the 6GHz band is central to this. Each occasion of 6GHz migration relieves stress on the crowded 5GHz band for everybody else.
The US ought to showcase Wi-Fi know-how as a home-grown innovation success story for each customers and companies alike, producing home employment and vital export revenues.
The coverage conclusion is extraordinarily clear. The US should be sure that all 1200MHz of the 6GHz band stays out there to the Wi-Fi ecosystem and virtually usable throughout the combo of low-power indoor, very-low-power and outside venue deployments. Certainly, as explored in a current examine, there must also be consideration given to early launch of lower-7GHz spectrum for unlicensed use, if appropriate gadgets and entry factors can be found by that date.
LA28 must be celebrated because the Wi-Fi Olympics.
1 https://www.rcrwireless.com/20250929/analyst-angle/cbrs-la28-olympics
2 https://www.huawei.com/cn/information/2026/3/mwc-5ga-u6ghz-6g (in Chinese language)
