It’s no secret that technology and media companies worldwide have been advocating the utilization of white spaces for the transmission of signals for Internet connectivity. TV White Spaces Consortium, a coalition of 17 U.K. and global companies has been engaged in a project for nearly a year to explore the possibilities of utilizing television white spaces to address the rapidly accelerating demand for wireless connectivity. The consortium has recently revealed the findings of this testing project.
The consortium is comprised of Adaptrum Inc., Alcatel-Lucent, Arqiva, BBC, BSkyB, BT, Cambridge Consultants, CRFS, CSR plc., Digital TV Group (DTG), Microsoft Corp, Neul, Nokia, Samsung, Spectrum (News - Alert) Bridge Inc., The Technology Partnership plc. (TTP), and Virgin Media. In close collaboration with Ofcom, the companies carried out a ten month trial, setting up base stations on the north side of the Cambridge city center in four pubs and at TTP's headquarters in Melbourn, a rural community south of Cambridge, and linked to a household in Orwell.
Following more than 10 months of comprehensive testing in these regions in and around Cambridge, the Cambridge TV White Spaces Consortium has successfully demonstrated that white spaces have the potentials to successfully address the U.K.'s broadband needs.
The trial analysis found Cambridge has significant television white spaces capacity — 20 white spaces channels corresponding to 160 megahertz in total, of which 13 (104 megahertz) were allowed in the test license from Ofcom. The consortium stated that this can be used to help augment existing broadband networks, extend broadband access to rural areas, and allow for machine-to-machine communications.
The consortium explored and measured a range of applications — rural wireless broadband, urban pop-up coverage and the emerging "machine-to-machine" communication — and concluded that this technology can now be harnessed through a regulatory framework to benefit U.K. consumers.
U.K.’s Communications Minister Ed Vaizey stated, “With the rapid rise of mobile broadband and the desire to enable remote areas to enjoy the benefits of broadband, the need for more efficient spectrum use has never been greater. The UK is playing a leading role by exploring the use of license-exempt access to TV white spaces and developing a model regulatory framework. None of this would have been possible without the support of Ofcom — and the constructive and unprecedented collaboration of the companies involved — to progress this groundbreaking mode of spectrum access.”
Edited by Jamie Epstein