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Internet Hardware For White-Space Spectrum?
g2 in the desert writes "I live in a small rural community in the US Southwest, where broadband service varies from decent but very expensive, to lousy but less expensive. Now that the Federal Communications Commission has approved the use of the soon to be vacated White-Space Spectrum, I'm interested in helping the community build its own local Internet service, providing villagers another choice. Does anyone know what companies will be manufacturing hardware that will be required to utilize this spectrum, and what steps need to be taken in order to be in compliance with any FCC rules and regulations?"
Seems the big ISPs don't really want your kind in the broadband business. Watch what happens when good ideas meet greed - i.e. Greenlight providing competition to the greedy last mile ISPs.
All I have to say is - good luck!
I'm sure the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA -- http://www.wispa.org/) will be an invaluable resource for you. If they don't have the answers you seek already, they probably will as soon as they become available.
I don't understand your response. The to be vacated white space is free - by edict.
parent is talking nonsense.
the white spaces are free for unlicensed use just like the 2.4 GHz spectrum currently used for wifi routers. no one can buy the white spaces.
Anyone considering developing their own community-driven ISP should be aware of the ongoing struggles these kinds of enterprises are facing, and the ends to which big media will go to stop them from cutting into their profits (such as push-polling).
Mod root up, the internet is serious business.
The poster was asking about the "white-space" which is the space between television channels. The FCC has recently approved its use without a license. This is not the same thing as the 700Mhz band.
Your confusion is probably because the original poster described the space as "soon to be vacated" which is not an accurate way to describe the white-space. 700Mhz will be vacated soon, but must be licensed. White-space is already vacant and won't need to be licensed.
Ubiquity makes hardware that you may find useful
see http://www.ubnt.com/
Sorry since the article you refered to is a broken link I though you were talking about the 700Mhz spectrum that was auctioned off.
The 300-400Mhz spectrum has only one major player right now and that is Motorola. The device that they are proposing uses the TDD FSK Modulation with a GPS sync much like their canopy line. However I am hoping that they will choose to follow a standard (unlike canopy line) so that others will be able to interoperate.
The Motorola device uses an FCC database to help it to find open channels. I do not know how well they can make that scale.
I'll let others comment on the hardware and business plans but the problem with rural inherently is that cost of delivering bandwidth from a major city/internet POP to your rural location ala backhaul. Bandwidth is EXPENSIVE when purchased in a rural location unless you have the big $$$ to operate your own fiber backhaul or a wavelength of existing fiber from the POP to your location. It really depends on how rural the location is. You really need to consider the costs and oversell ratio if you're going to do this. Try asking here btw: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/wisp In rural areas the ILEC setup is usually the minimum unless the CO has been setup for DSL/higher bandwidth services meaning it's usually only TDM based. The ILEC has to share the resources with the federally required voice service. And if they haven't deployed broadband out of the CO already then it's not profitable for them. This eventually most likely with the ILEC telling you a very high bandwidth costs and even higher if there's fiber/equipment buildout costs needed. If you're in a rural but not-so-rural location and can do wireless backhaul for the bandwidth (microwave) then you can lessen your costs that way. This is all based on what I read online. Good luck btw.