In addition to new rules requiring that signal booster owners get carrier approval to use those devices, the FCC this week also claimed to have made some rule changes that will tackle what the agency insists is an emergency congestion epidemic facing Wi-Fi networks. The press quickly became awash in stories about how the FCC was saving us from a Wi-Fi congestion apocalypse nobody was actually worried about.

Yes, some Wi-Fi networks in heavily-trafficked areas do get clogged.

A study earlier this year from the University of Twente’s CTIT research institute found that available bandwidth in urban areas can drop to as low as 20% of its overall potential.

Again though nobody's actually worried about this -- there's a myriad of engineering options to address this, ranging from improved Wi-Fi standards to more efficient use of spectrum, and the study was clear to point out that inefficient (but fixable) control mechanisms were primarily to blame for packet collision and urban congestion.

Enter the FCC on stage left to save the day. FCC boss Julius Genachowski desperately wants to have his legacy at the FCC be "the guy who ushered in the new wireless age," even if that legacy will more accurately be "yet another in a long-line of FCC bosses that pretended U.S. broadband has no competition issues." That's not to say the FCC's move here is bad, just overblown a bit.

According to the FCC, they'll modify part 15 rules governing Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) to make up to 195 megahertz of additional spectrum in the 5 GHz band available to unlicensed wireless devices. That's a 35% boost in available spectrum the agency says will ease congestion and boost wireless speeds moving forward. In short, the FCC move will contribute to engineer efforts to prevent more significant congestion issues before they happen.

"The proposed modifications would provide access to additional contiguous spectrum with consistent technical requirements, allowing unlicensed devices to use wider bandwidth channels, leading to faster speeds," notes the agency that saved the world.