Ofcom UK has today proposed a new framework to support the future use of White Space (IEEE 802.22) based wireless broadband technology on a licence exempt basis. The new service harnesses unused radio spectrum, which exists between Digital TV channels (470MHz to 790MHz), to deliver wifi style connectivity over a wide area.
Ofcom has today begun to set out plans that will eventually enable the release of new airwaves (UHF radio spectrum), such as the controversial 700MHz and 600MHz band used by Digital TV services, which could be used by a future generation of 5G Mobile Broadband or WiFi style internet solutions. But it will be 2018 before anything happens.
Software and Internet giants Microsoft and Google are understood to have expressed “extreme interest” in the UK development of a potentially national wifi style wireless broadband network using the unused White Space (IEEE 802.22) radio spectrum that exists between Digital TV (DTV) channels.
The European Commission (EC) has today moved to tackle the rising demand for Mobile Broadband and WiFi data traffic, which doubles every year and could soon reach over 1 Trillion MegaBytes per month in Europe alone, by removing the regulatory barriers that prohibit radio spectrum sharing and White Space tech.
The TV White Spaces Consortium, which comprises 17 international and UK technology and media companies (BT, Microsoft, BBC, Virgin Media, Alcatel-Lucent etc.), has reported that their 10 month long trials of White Space (IEEE 802.22) wireless broadband tech in urban and rural areas around Cambridge (England) have been “successful“.
Early feedback from BT’s trial of ‘White Space‘ (IEEE 802.22) wireless broadband technology on the Isle of Bute suggests that the service, which delivers internet access by making use of the unused radio spectrum that exists between Digital TV channels, still has a lot of problems to overcome, not least in terms of its sporadic performance.
BT has confirmed that it plans to expand upon last year’s Cambridge and Isle of Bute based trials (here) of “White Space” (IEEE 802.22) wireless broadband technology, which makes use of the radio spectrum that exists between Digital Terrestrial TV (DTTV) channels to deliver internet access services, by launching a new commercial scale test in Cornwall to replace its current 4G (Mobile Broadband) trial with Everything Everywhere (Orange UK and T-Mobile).