White space to be considered for broadband in the UK

The possibility of deploying wireless broadband technology into the radio wave spectrum that is not being used, which is known as “white spaces”, and is currently used as a buffer between TV channels, is being looked into by Ofcom, the UK telecommunications regulator, as it follows plans made in the US.

A discussion document that looked into the potential use of technologies, which would be called white space devices, to offer improved broadband services in the more rural parts of the country was recently published by the watchdog. These white space devices can get through walls more easily, travel further and use a lower frequency when compared to Wi-Fi, Cellular and Bluetooth.

The ability to control home appliances like central heating and the oven from hundreds of miles away, improved mobile broadband access in the more remote and rural areas, and digital cameras that automatically send the pictures back to a computer system were just a few of the possible applications of these devices.

Although commercial deployments are around three years away these proposals are still being met with opposition, as has been shown over in the US. In the US a fight by some of the big names in the entertainment industry to keep service providers away from this white space spectrum was lost back in 2008.

The high levels of opposition in the entertainment industry came from names like Neil Diamond, Guns’n’Roses and Dolly Parton who claimed that interference with radio microphones that are used by the entertainment industry could be caused by the use of white space devices, although so far the proposals for the use of white space has been backed by a number of tech giants like Microsoft, Yahoo and Google.

Proof that these white space devices can be used without causing interference with various types of wireless technologies and TV broadcasts that share the same frequencies has been acknowledged by Ofcom. The requirement for these devices to include geolocation capabilities and provisions to use a web database of the main services that will enable the white space devices to be told which frequencies they can use in a particular area has been the move taken in the US and appears to be the best solution to the problem at the moment.

Source – Telecoms