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Television White Space Spectrum Approved For Use By FCC

Posted by Soulskill on from the new-wireless-acronym-time dept.

New submitter ptmartin01 writes "The unused spectrum now assigned to television broadcast has been made available for public use by the FCC. This is going to be used for wireless applications (PDF) with implications that it will generate as much investment as the previous Wi-Fi spectrum. It also happens to be the last available spectrum to be exploited."

10 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. So Is This For Licensed Or Unlicensed Use? by rsmith-mac · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hopefully someone can clear this up for me.

    Throughout the development of the "white space" spectrum, one thing that has never been clear to me is what it's going to be used for. It keeps getting compared to Wi-Fi, but then you'll have articles like this one that talk about commercial uses.

    The launch of commercial white spaces services marks a victory for big technology companies

    So which is it? Am I going to be able to drop a router in my house and run my wireless LAN on different frequencies, or is this just going to be another segment of licensed spectrum for selling wireless broadband?

    1. Re:So Is This For Licensed Or Unlicensed Use? by Tx · · Score: 4, Informative

      I was wondering the same thing. I guess if there was a "killer app" for white space spectrum, we'd have heard about it. This page summarises it so; "Unlicensed spectrum opens the door to all kinds of uses, but the use most commonly talked about is to provide fixed and wireless broadband Internet services. It could also prove a good technology for moving video and other bulky data types around the home."

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      Oh no... it's the future.
    2. Re:So Is This For Licensed Or Unlicensed Use? by Trip+Ericson · · Score: 4, Interesting

      When spectrum is unlicensed, it can be used for both commercial and non-commercial uses. My ISP operates its end-user links on 900 MHz unlicensed spectrum, but its backhauls are on highly-directional 2.4 GHz unlicensed links. That, of course, does not mean that 2.4 GHz cannot also be used for wifi in the home, or that 900 MHz cannot also be used for cordless phones. (In fact, I had to replace one of my cordless phones when I got my Internet connection because the two would interfere badly. If the phone was on the exact same frequency as the Internet, it'd knock the Internet out, but if it was merely adjacent, I would hear modem sounds on the phone.)

  2. Can I watch these new applications on TV . . . ? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So what if I haul that old, dusty analog TV out of the attic, switch it on and tune it to one of these new applications? What will I see? Strange, weird pulsating patterns? Or garbled snow and fuzzy sounds?

    Will I be able to tell the difference between that mess, and usual broadcast television content?

    Maybe the old TV can be used as a Lava Lamp effect light? It would be interesting to see how the television circuitry tries to interpret these new application coded signals as television signals.

    Probably like something SETI is trying to do.

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  3. Re:Capitalism, ho! by Dolphinzilla · · Score: 4, Interesting

    it's also a little bit of BS - there is a tremendous amount of spectrum, not only is there spectrum that is inefficiently used there is also spectrum that is just beginning to become useable due to advances in technology. I hardly believe that white space TV spectrum is the last bastion of wireless communications.....

  4. Re:Frequency ranges??? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Band_Devices
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_spaces_%28radio%29#FCC_decision

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    Palm trees and 8
  5. Re:Can I watch these new applications on TV . . . by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    So what if I haul that old, dusty analog TV out of the attic, switch it on and tune it to one of these new applications? What will I see?

    I Love Lucy.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
  6. Re:It's not the last by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The FCC could try to take away some of the amateur radio spectrum. Every now again they try to take some away. In so far they have not been successful. It is only a matter of time though. What with the number of new hams decreasing every year.

    You might want to check your facts. The number of licensees in the U.S. is actually at an all-time high. It's been climbing since 2007, when the FCC dropped an outdated Morse Code proficiency requirement. See graphs and some additional stats for the details.

  7. TFS, it sucks by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Informative

    The unused spectrum now assigned to television broadcast has been made available for public use by the FCC.

    No. It hasn't. It's been made available for commercial use, following the long standing tradition at the FCC of giving the public nothing or next to nothing, and corporations everything.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  8. Re:Capitalism, ho! by Biogenesis · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't have the FCC's spectrum allocation chart handy, but here's the one for Australia: http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/radcomm/frequency_planning/spectrum_plan/arsp-wc.pdf

    The only unallocated spectrum is below 9kHz and above 275GHz. Obviously a lot of overlap can occur at VHF and above (if you allow for the odd tropospheric ducting event to cause interference) but TV is the last of the big chunks of spectrum, everything on the chart that isn't broadcasting (orange/red colour) is hacked up into small pieces.

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    ...just so Google finds it.