Roland Turner

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Legally Obtaining IEEE 802 Standards Free of Charge

I am perhaps a little late to the party, but I've just noticed that IEEE 802-series standards are generally available free of charge upon request. This does not meet any of the requirements for Creative Commons, Free Software, or Open Source Software, (in particular you can't distribute them) but is at least a step up from having to fork out a lot of money. I am interested in particular in some of the details of the unlicensed-spectrum coexistence mechanisms specified in IEEE 802.16-2017 which, as a non-IEEE-member, I could purchase today for the low, low price of USD901. This particular standard does run close to three thousand pages, but still.

As a gentle encouragement and reminder not to redistribute, each page has a footer identifying the individual licensee who downloaded it:

To obtain an individually licensed copy free of charge: