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White Space Wireless Broadband Trial In UK Is a Success
Mark.JUK writes "A major multinational ten month long trial of new 'White Space' technology (IEEE 802.22) in the United Kingdom, which uses the spare radio spectrum that exists between Digital Terrestrial TV (DTV) channels to deliver wireless internet access services over a wide area, has officially completed today and been deemed 'successful.' The technology, if approved, could one day help to bring faster broadband services to both isolated rural and urban areas. The TV White Spaces Consortium, which comprises 17 international and UK technology and media companies (BT, Microsoft, BBC, Alcatel-Lucent etc.), has now recommended that the UK regulator, Ofcom, complete its development of the 'enabling regulatory framework' (i.e. Draft Statutory Instrument) in a 'manner that protects licensees' from 'harmful' interference and encourages innovation and deployment."
to the brosdband or DTV signals?
Looks like it's time to upgrade my tinfoil hat!
With frequencies being grabbed left, right and center, for whatever reason, I wonder how much frequencies are left out there for future use?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
You're missing the point - this is to cover areas with broadband access that previously did not have access (or had really slow access because they are located so far from an exchange). This won't give you coverage in your garden (that is what WiFi is for), it is more to get a bigger internet pipe to your house so that you can get some decent speeds.
A picture is worth exactly 1024 words.
which uses the spare radio spectrum that exists between Digital Terrestrial TV (DTV) channels
Spend a moment, dear reader, thinking about how much bandwidth that is - contrast with 802.11 if you will - and divide it among the number of users.
has now recommended that the UK regulator, Ofcom, complete its development of the 'enabling regulatory framework' (i.e. Draft Statutory Instrument) in a 'manner that protects licensees' from 'harmful' interference and encourages innovation and deployment."
Ofcom's responsibility, turning the function of the Radiocommunications Agency on its head, is basically to protect big business from anyone who tries to behave responsibly with the spectrum, ignoring abusers. The first step of such businesses is to go whining to Ofcom for some secondary legislation (i.e. government edict with no Parliamentary scrutiny) to protect their abuse.
One day? It looks like its happening now:
http://www.neul.com/neul-pr-250412.php
You're missing the point - this is to cover areas with broadband access that previously did not have access (or had really slow access because they are located so far from an exchange).
I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in the states, if you're in a rural area (no broadband), you generally also have no DTV reception and have to resort to satellite.
Everyone is missing the hidden fact.
All wireless broadband providers install systems that attempt to compete with wired broadband. At the usable frequencies in the U.S. this means the system only works for folks in densely populated areas or those in between that area and the WiPOP. Anyone outside of the propagation lobe remains slave to old technology or technology useless for anything but streaming down-link, if you can stand the lag time. When it rains, it doesn't pour.
No money centered entity will ever provide service geared for rural customers. The customer density isn't there.
My local Telco has had DSL equipment installed and running in the local switch for more than 10 years. They will not sell the service because it wouldn't be a profit maker. I know. I'm the one maintaining the switch and I'm limited to the lies of the satellite companies.
I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in the states, if you're in a rural area (no broadband), you generally also have no DTV reception and have to resort to satellite.
Yes, that's the point -- locations for which the DTV stations are out of range, form a "TV White Space," where the DTV frequencies are not used. The frequencies then can be re-used for other applications, like wireless, wide-area Internet access. It gives the person in rural areas an alternative to satellites.
Yep. In the rural area I live: right now I have the fun choice of either sticking with my two year old technology that gets terrible download and upload speed, but can be canceled at any time because there is no contract, or upgrading to download speeds that are almost as good as what most people have had in suburban areas for about three years, but being tied to a minimum two year contract.
Because there's not a shit-ton of us out there, we just get shit-on.
Yes, that's the point -- locations for which the DTV stations are out of range, form a "TV White Space," where the DTV frequencies are not used. The frequencies then can be re-used for other applications, like wireless, wide-area Internet access. It gives the person in rural areas an alternative to satellites.
No, that is not the point. White space is, as the summary points out, the space between DTV stations (i.e., unassigned to any station, empty "guardband" space between channels, much like using the white space margins on a piece of paper for notes). My point is that in rural areas where you can't get DTV, you are unlikely to receive broadband wireless on these frequencies because of terrain (e.g., mountains). Where there isn't enough market to put a TV station, is there enough market for a broadband station?
No money centered entity will ever provide service geared for rural customers. The customer density isn't there.
That is why AT&T was required to provide service to rural areas, per government regulations as one of the 'penalties' for being a 'blessed monopoly'. ( before some senator got a burr up his butt and broke them up )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
My point is that in rural areas where you can't get DTV, you are unlikely to receive broadband wireless on these frequencies because of terrain (e.g., mountains). Where there isn't enough market to put a TV station, is there enough market for a broadband station?
But hardly anyone lives there. Where there are mountains, people tend to live in the valleys between them, and those are largely practical to cover with smaller transmitters. Furthermore, the same transmitters could be tasked with offering both TV and "wireless internet" signals, allowing enough profit to be made off them to make much smaller installations viable.
Even the most rural parts of the UK are mostly not nearly as rural as the most rural parts of the US.
"Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
The summary means "between" in the physical sense -- when there is a physical space between the coverage area of DTV stations. Read a little about IEEE 802.22. (Maybe the second sentence in Wikipedia will help: "The development of the IEEE 802.22 WRAN standard is aimed at using cognitive radio (CR) techniques to allow sharing of geographically unused spectrum allocated to the Television Broadcast Service. . . .") An 802.22 signal has a bandwidth of 6, 7, or 8 MHz, depending on the bandwidth of the television channels used in the relevant country: It's not a narrow, "guardband" type of signal shoved in between the channels somehow.
Regardless, your question, "Where there isn't enough market to put a TV station, is there enough market for a broadband station?" to me remains the question to be answered about TVWS. Will applications be found for it that are economically viable?
...at the IEEE Get Program web site.
whether whitespace broadband will be success. The Emperors are just now arriving at the rookery sites and mating will soon commence. After eggs are transfered to the males and the females go off to feed, expect some early indications July at the earliest to see how many eggs have survived the difficult incubation period. During total whiteout conditions of deep Antarctic winter they will huddle together in the whitespace. If too many eggs have frozen or dropped onto the ice the telecoms may as well hang it all up. September is when we'll know for sure if the spectrum left over from old telly channels can store enough fish goo for regurgitation. In December the grown chicks will be off we'll have a real fledge count to go on. I hope they will be big and fat so we all can get more throughput.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
I remember the power line broadband trials were terribly noisy for ham radio services, I wonder if this is any better.
When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.