Turning TV Static into Broadband Gold?

Earlier this month,  the FCC voted unanimously to allow conditional unlicensed use of "white spaces" television spectrum. The idea is to effectively turn TV static into money for providers and new broadband data services for consumers. 

A noble idea. But hasn't it already been tried with Wi-Fi with a miserable outcome? Ever been to Philadelphia or talked to an Earthlink sales rep lately? 

"[The use of] white space is very risky and may be hard to create a business model that will be truly successful on it," said Paul Gallant, a Senior VP and policy analyst with the Stamford Group.

White spaces are the unused bits of spectrum between UHF television channels, which will no longer be needed when the United States abandons analog television broadcasting and goes all-digital in February, 2009.

Full power analog television broadcasts operate between the 54 MHz and 806 MHz in the United States (Channels 2-69). In February 2009, full power TV stations are required to switch to digital transmission and operate only between 54-698 MHz. The space between 698-806 MHz (in the 700 MHz  band) was auctioned off by the FCC in 2007, netting some $19 billion for the U.S. Treasury. A white spaces access point will use the IEEE 802.22 standard (wikipedia), which utilizes two different strategies to avoid interference.

One potential use that could come from the decision is neighborhood wireless zones. Carriers could provide, for example, rural broadband Internet access without incurring the huge costs of buying spectrum for a limited number of subscribers. You see, the spectrum signals have much longer range than Wi-Fi technology (two to three time farther 'experts' say), so broadband access could be spread using fewer base stations, resulting in better coverage at lower cost. Some  laptops makers, like Dell, have already announced plans to

These experts also say that the use of white spaces will enable low wireless broadband service in rural areas, self-forming mesh networks capable of routing traffic at speeds of 20 megabits per second. We can pretty much already do that today with Wi-Fi using our directional smart antenna arrays and smart Wi-Fi meshing.

The space could also be used for improved communications networks to connect police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders.

T-Mobile isn't the biggest fan of this idea, saying that they think service within white space will cause interference. The FCC in October released a report that found the interference issue to be inconsequential, and noted that, "when factoring in actual operation under nonstatic conditions, the situation only improves."

So what's the real point?  "Smarter" Wi-Fi (seriously) has more of a chance to fill this need (and will). 

One of the most interesting things in this whole discussion is the FCC's interest in the ability to extend signal range, detect and avoid interference. For wireless technology to be useful (no matter what it is) the ability to automatically adapt to environmental changes is essential to doing more meaningful things.

So while you read a lot of stories and headlines about white spaces this and white spaces that, people (carriers, service providers, MSOs, hotels, gas companies with gas stations, etc.) will be building smarter hotspots (SmartSpots) using Wi-Fi - and putting them everywhere. These SmartSpots use 802.11n, adaptive Wi-Fi signal technology, support multimedia, can automatically communicate with a remote "controller" and intelligently redirect users who need localized content or need to be authenticated.

This is real and already happening.  Ask PCCW, Telenor, Swisscom, AT&T, CenturyTel, Brighthouse - I could go on but would get in trouble.
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