The Federal Communications Commission is close to finalizing rules for the use of unused television broadcast spectrum, also known as “white spaces,” the Wall Street Journal recently reported.
The spectrum in question includes the vacant bands between television channels—prime spectrum bands that have excellent propagation characteristics. Google and others have been lobbying the FCC to free up that spectrum to expand wireless data communications.
Television broadcasters and entities that use wireless microphones in spectrum bands adjacent to the white spaces have expressed concerns that freeing up the white spaces might cause interference problems. But according to the Wall Street Journal report, the FCC has been meeting with broadcasters and other interested parties to resolve those issues.
Wireless developer Spectrum Bridge claims to have a solution to potential interference problems. The company uses a white spaces database to dynamically assign non-interfering frequencies to white space devices in real time.
Spectrum Bridge has pioneered the use of TV white spaces in several trials. In the rural community of Claudeville, Va., the company installed a “middle mile” connection between the Internet and WiFi hot spot networks.
And in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, the company helped Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative & Telecommunications use white spaces to connect substations and switch gear to enable the coop to more effectively manager power flows. That network also provides broadband Internet access to residents in the community.
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