New Rules From the FCC Open Up New Access To Wi-Fi

CarlottaHapsburg writes: White space — unused channels in the VHF and UHF spectrum — is already part of daily life, from old telephones to going online at your coffee shop or plugging in baby monitors. The time has come to 'permit unlicensed fixed and personal/portable white space devices and unlicensed wireless microphones to use channels in the 600 MHz and television broadcast bands,' according to the FCC. One of the ramifications is that Wi-Fi could now blanket urban areas, as well as bringing it to rural areas and machine-to-machine technology. Rice University has tested a super Wi-Fi network linked by next-generation TV or smart remotes. Carriers are sure to be unhappy about this, but consumers will have the benefit of a newly open web.

Comments

Re: Bandwidth?

[Ol Olsoc]

I would far prefer a reliable 13Mbps that covers a while multi-acre lot than 54Mbps that I can't even use at one end of my house.

It doesn't matter because if they open up a new band with more range then you'll just have more stations to compete with because you can fight for spectrum with people who are farther away.

You are correct. While in principle this is a good idea, RF does not always act like most people think it will act.

Any system that has longer range actually means less people can use it, and then there is that propagation - great fun for experimenters and Amateur radio operators, when a thermal inversion or electromagnetic solar activity makes for much longer than normal contact distances. Not so much fun for digital data.

That 2.4 GHz neighborhood is actually about the best compromise for range, and immunity from weird propagation we can get.

The UHF white space utilization isn't exactly a bad idea, but I smell another BPL fiasco could be made from it.

BPL, was that batshit crazy idea of sending DSL speed internet to consumers by way of their power lines.

It ultimately failed because of what the boys down at the shop call a SFI (Stupid Fsckin' Idea). The wires acted just like an antenna, and spewed radio interference all over the place, the signal could be interrupted by kids with CB radios, and the best part was that the signal going into your house couldn't survive the trip through your power pole transformer, so they put a little bypass device to "inject" the digital signal, which was carried on the High Voltage lines, not your puny 120 or 240 lines - better hope those injectors always fail open!

If this turns out to be another bureaucratic faith based technology implementation - should be fun.

initial issues are going to be getting any efficiency out of the antennas - they will be bigger, and that longer range issue will be an issue as well. Proponents need to take a look at the UHF antennas on some houses in the country to get an idea.