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White Space Plan Would Reuse TV Spectrum

An anonymous reader writes "A collection of companies including Microsoft, Google and Motorola are teaming up for a new white space wireless network plan. The White Spaces Database Group, as it will be known, plans on formulating a plan to create, govern and maintain a wireless broadband network on abandoned analog television spectrum. When the spectrum is finally vacated in June, the group hopes that system in place which will allow for the creation of an open wireless broadband network which will be accessible by any device. The FCC officially approved keeping the spectrum open back in November, despite staunch opposition from telco firms."

8 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Whitespace?? by Foofoobar · · Score: 3, Informative

    I wonder if their documentation will be written in whitespace.

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  2. Re:Return Path? by geekoid · · Score: 4, Informative

    Health concerns have scientifically been oput to rest. There isn't really anything you can do about peple who just make shit up and ignore facts.

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  3. Re:How the telcos will respond by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not happy about it.

    I live in Lancaster PA. The TV Band (whitespace) Devices will broadcast over top of, and block my Baltimore/Philly stations. No more 2,3,6,10,11,12,13,17,35,45,57,61,65 - no more Orioles, Raven, Phillies, or Eagles games. Less variety & loss of free television is not something I'm looking forward to.

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    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  4. Re:How the telcos will respond by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Informative

    >>> Hey you, wake up! Your (analog) stations are going away in June, whether this wireless broadband network gets off the ground or not.

    Hey you, wake up!

    The digital stations will still be there you dope. On channels 2 to 51. Duh.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  5. Re:How the telcos will respond by commodore64_love · · Score: 3, Informative

    Non-relevant. The TV Band (whitespace) Devices will broadcast over top of my Baltimore/Philly stations, since they are considered "out of market" for my town.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  6. Re:How the telcos will respond by commodore64_love · · Score: 3, Informative

    >>>The FCC is requiring that whitespace devices not interfere with DTV

    You mean *in-market* DTV. Out-of-market DTV is not protected, which is why I will lose the Baltimore-Philadelphia stations.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  7. Sorry to break this to you... by dtmos · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...but if your wireless mics really are in the TV bands, and really aren't Part 15 devices, then they're Part 74, Subpart H devices, which do require a license. There are no other options. You're one of many who've been sold a bill of goods by unscrupulous manufacturers of these microphones which, by law, can only be licensed to television stations, broadcast networks, cable television systems, motion picture producers, television program producers, and Multipoint Multichannel Distribution System (MMDS) licensees (Title 47 USC, 74.832). See this for a pretty good, if slightly dated, FAQ on what's required to license a wireless microphone in the US.

    These microphones typically will be offered no protection against interference from whitespace protocols like the IEEE 802.22 standard. Note that the IEEE 802.22 group is also in the final stages of standardizing a beacon protocol, IEEE 802.22.1 [pdf]. This beacon is to be present whenever the (licensed) wireless microphone is in operation, and produces a signal easier to detect (at a greater range) than the microphone itself, so that cognitive white space secondary users can more reliably determine that that television channel is occupied and move elsewhere. This system avoids interference to the wireless microphone by the secondary user.

  8. Only you need to wake up... by chaboud · · Score: 4, Informative

    First off, ATSC channels are the same 6MHz as NTSC channels.

    Secondly, if you take a peek at a spectrum analyzer, you'll see a big, fat, non-peaky pedestal of signal for digital TV. It's about as immune to low-level interference as I am to ebola.

    Thirdly, radio astromony is given a "big" empty space (channel 37).

    Fourthly, the day that we call 100mW "low-level interference" is the day that we all, women included, have seven testicles.

    Fifthly, these devices are so overpowered that they knock out cable TV.

    Sixthly, there are ways (other frequencies, spread spectrum, burst transmission) to control high-bandwidth wireless devices wirelessly.

    Seventhly, I had to go up to "sixthly." If you're really in the broadcast and communication "world" (do you mean industry?), you should consider boning up or getting out.