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THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALLT
he FCC’s 700MHz auction recently
concluded with a number of telecoms
bidding more than $19 billion for
spectrum made available by the United
States’ move to digital TV. Now the FCC is
considering how to use another part of the
spectrum, but instead of auctioning it off,
it may simply open up the spectrum for
anyone to use with, essentially, any type of
device. What the FCC chooses to do with
this spectrum, known as white space, will
greatly affect how ubiquitous broadband us-
age becomes and may, finally, bring broad-
band to underserved rural areas. However,
there are concerns about its use, and groups
are lining up on both sides of the debate to
protect their interests.
White spaces are the gaps between
broadcast television channels. But to call
them white spaces is a bit of a misnomer, as
they are being used, primarily by medical
monitoring devices and wireless mics. The
pro audio industry, medical device manufac-
turers, and television broadcasters are con-
cerned that opening up the white spaces to
unlicensed devices will cause interference
with either television broadcasts or devices
that currently use the spectrum
The Wireless Innovation Alliance,
whose members include Google, Micro-soft, Motorola, and HP, are pushing the
FCC to make the white spaces similar to
Wi-Fi, open to any unlicensed device. Brian
Peters, spokesperson for the WIA, explains
that “unlicensed use of vacant portions of
the spectrum would enable innovators to
develop devices that would change personal
communications by enabling broadband
deployment, the creation of mesh networks,
municipal Wi-Fi, and myriad other break-throughs.” Google cofounder Larry Page
has even described white spaces as “Wi-Fi
on steroids”—by one estimate, they have
the potential to deliver 80Mb/s download
speeds. They are also particularly valuable
because signals in this spec-
trum can travel great distances
and move through walls and
other obstacles, making them
a good “last mile” solution for
bringing broadband to rural
areas where telecoms have
been reticent to run cables.
Mark Brunner, Shure’s senior director for
public and industry relations, has a different
take. While he says that “pro audio has zero
objections to providing last-mile broadband
wirelessly,” he’s worried about the potential
for interference with what he terms “incum-
bent uses of the spectrum.” This includes
such things as intercoms and wireless mics,
which could be hindered in urban areas,where there’s likely to be a large concentra-
tion of personal wireless devices—laptops,
media players, etc.—deployed.
So far, several devices have been submit-
ted to the FCC to test this theory, but the
results have been mixed. Peters explains
that “these are beta prototypes being used to
collect information on the use of the vacant
broadcast spectrum,” and the tests are not
pass-fail propositions. In order to allay the
concerns of the pro audio industry, what will
likely happen is that some spectrum will be
set aside for wireless mic use, and spectrum-
sensing technology will be included in new
devices that take advantage of the white
spaces. But even though the spectrum will
become available in February 2009, don’t ex-
pect to see any white-space-utilizing devices
for some time aft er that. Allen Nogee, princi-
pal analyst for In-Stat, thinks that because of
the complexity of the issue it will be several
years before devices hit the market.White spaces could make mobile broadband available almost anywhere. That would be something to
smile about.THE NEWS
White spaces may be the means of providing free
broadband nationwide —TOM EDWARDS
Opening the Airwaves
THE NEWS
Opening the Airwaves
THE NEWS
[WHITE SPACES] HAVE
THE POTENTIAL TO
DELIVER 80Mb/s
DOWNLOAD SPEEDS.