White Space Wireless Broadband Trial In UK Is a Success 39
Mark.JUK writes "A major multinational ten month long trial of new 'White Space' technology (IEEE 802.22) in the United Kingdom, which uses the spare radio spectrum that exists between Digital Terrestrial TV (DTV) channels to deliver wireless internet access services over a wide area, has officially completed today and been deemed 'successful.' The technology, if approved, could one day help to bring faster broadband services to both isolated rural and urban areas. The TV White Spaces Consortium, which comprises 17 international and UK technology and media companies (BT, Microsoft, BBC, Alcatel-Lucent etc.), has now recommended that the UK regulator, Ofcom, complete its development of the 'enabling regulatory framework' (i.e. Draft Statutory Instrument) in a 'manner that protects licensees' from 'harmful' interference and encourages innovation and deployment."
How much free frequencies are left? (Score:1)
With frequencies being grabbed left, right and center, for whatever reason, I wonder how much frequencies are left out there for future use?
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With frequencies being grabbed left, right and center, for whatever reason, I wonder how much frequencies are left out there for future use?
An infinite number ..... of zero bandwidth!
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That's the whole point: There aren't any free frequencies left. White Space technology is an attempt to squeeze the last drop.
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That's the whole point: There aren't any free frequencies left. White Space technology is an attempt to squeeze the last drop.
I can't predict the future, but what if ...
What if 10 years from now someone actually invent the technology that can transfer matter from one location to the next, remotely - just like "Star Trek" - but they need radio frequency to accomplish that task
With "free" frequency all exhausted, that new invention can be put to use, can it?
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I think everyone can agree we can do without QVC.
Re:How much free frequencies are left? (Score:4, Funny)
> I think everyone can agree we can do without QVC.
Tell my wife that. I'll pop up some popcorn and watch.
From a safe distance. :)
Re:How much free frequencies are left? (Score:4, Insightful)
What if 10 years from now someone actually invent the technology that can transfer matter from one location to the next, remotely - just like "Star Trek" - but they need radio frequency to accomplish that task
With "free" frequency all exhausted, that new invention can be put to use, can it?
You mean they can't do things like stopping transmissions of analog TV signals to free up spectrum? Like they've just done?
If there's a good reason to change frequency allocations, they'll be changed. As long as Ofcom (the relevant UK regulator given that this is a UK story; substitute with correct regulator in your locality as needed) remember to put things in place so that they can get the white-space frequency users out of the way of a regulated use, there'll be no significant problem. I guess that the devices in question will probably have to periodically (maybe monthly?) acquire the list of permitted frequencies for their locality somehow.
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To be fair, the Analog TV shutdown was pretty simple, since it was a one way transmission situation.
I can't imagine this test involved many remote transceivers, but unless listen-before-you-talk logic is not included in any consumer devices the problems of getting rid of them when new bandwidth allocations are necessary could be significant.
There are more than a few virtually forgotten routers in my neighborhood, some left plugged in even after the home-owners moved out and the place if up for sale. These
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In the UK turning-off analog only freed-up channels 7-13.... not a drastic difference. In the US it was 52-69 that was freed.
BTW I have no empty channels where I live. It's a side effect of living in the highly-populated northeast, so the whitespace device would be pointless. Every channel has a broadcast TV station.
Does the UK TV have any empty space? I thought all their channels were filled too, using multiplexes that span from former channels 14 to 60?
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Bah, they will just use pneumatic mail [wikipedia.org] like folks always did!
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Eventually we are supposed to be turning off analogue radio and older mobile phone frequency bands.
Analogue radio switch-over to digital is failing badly at the moment. Most new cars don't even have a digital radio.
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That all depends on the use. Various bands have different properties which make them desirable for different things. Some bands propagate well only in line of sight but can carry large amounts of data. Others can bounce off the atmosphere and talk all the way around the world. Some frequencies are useful for talking to satellites. Few frequencies penetrate heavy ground / water.
We are only running out of frequencies for some services. Also it's worth noting that frequencies are often assigned in blocks. For
Re:My 0.25 (Score:4, Informative)
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You're missing the point - this is to cover areas with broadband access that previously did not have access (or had really slow access because they are located so far from an exchange).
I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in the states, if you're in a rural area (no broadband), you generally also have no DTV reception and have to resort to satellite.
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I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in the states, if you're in a rural area (no broadband), you generally also have no DTV reception and have to resort to satellite.
Yes, that's the point -- locations for which the DTV stations are out of range, form a "TV White Space," where the DTV frequencies are not used. The frequencies then can be re-used for other applications, like wireless, wide-area Internet access. It gives the person in rural areas an alternative to satellites.
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Yes, that's the point -- locations for which the DTV stations are out of range, form a "TV White Space," where the DTV frequencies are not used. The frequencies then can be re-used for other applications, like wireless, wide-area Internet access. It gives the person in rural areas an alternative to satellites.
No, that is not the point. White space is, as the summary points out, the space between DTV stations (i.e., unassigned to any station, empty "guardband" space between channels, much like using the white space margins on a piece of paper for notes). My point is that in rural areas where you can't get DTV, you are unlikely to receive broadband wireless on these frequencies because of terrain (e.g., mountains). Where there isn't enough market to put a TV station, is there enough market for a broadband station?
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My point is that in rural areas where you can't get DTV, you are unlikely to receive broadband wireless on these frequencies because of terrain (e.g., mountains). Where there isn't enough market to put a TV station, is there enough market for a broadband station?
But hardly anyone lives there. Where there are mountains, people tend to live in the valleys between them, and those are largely practical to cover with smaller transmitters. Furthermore, the same transmitters could be tasked with offering both TV and "wireless internet" signals, allowing enough profit to be made off them to make much smaller installations viable.
Even the most rural parts of the UK are mostly not nearly as rural as the most rural parts of the US.
Sorry, no. (Score:2)
The summary means "between" in the physical sense -- when there is a physical space between the coverage area of DTV stations. Read a little about IEEE 802.22 [wikipedia.org]. (Maybe the second sentence in Wikipedia will help: "The development of the IEEE 802.22 WRAN standard is aimed at using cognitive radio (CR) techniques to allow sharing of geographically unused spectrum allocated to the Television Broadcast Service. . . .") An 802.22 signal has a bandwidth of 6, 7, or 8 MHz, depending on the bandwidth of the telev
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Yep. In the rural area I live: right now I have the fun choice of either sticking with my two year old technology that gets terrible download and upload speed, but can be canceled at any time because there is no contract, or upgrading to download speeds that are almost as good as what most people have had in suburban areas for about three years, but being tied to a minimum two year contract.
Because there's not a shit-ton of us out there, we just get shit-on.
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No money centered entity will ever provide service geared for rural customers. The customer density isn't there.
That is why AT&T was required to provide service to rural areas, per government regulations as one of the 'penalties' for being a 'blessed monopoly'. ( before some senator got a burr up his butt and broke them up )
IEEE 802.22 TVWS standard available at no charge (Score:2)
...at the IEEE Get Program web site [ieee.org].
TOO EARLY to tell... (Score:1)
What about ham radio? (Score:2)