One of the US developments that caused most excitement last year was the FCC decision to open up the ‘white spaces’ in broadcast spectrum for license-exempt wireless services, something for which internet players like Google had battled for years. However, despite the grand words about opening up a new band to support low cost, ubiquitous access and innovative new providers, there are many obstacles to white spaces reality, including completion of standards, creation of workable devices, and convincing avoidance of any interference with broadcasters or wireless microphones (a condition of the FCC green light).
White spaces equipment minimizes interference by using a combination of ‘detect and avoid’ technology and a database that enables it to determine which channels are available, before transmitting data. Now seven of the key supporters of unlicensed wireless services in the spaces are working together to reignite waning enthusiasm for the band, and to accelerate the creation of this database. Founding members of the White Spaces Database Group include Comsearch, Dell, Google, HP, Microsoft, Motorola and NeuStar.
The group intends to establish data formats and protocols that are open and non-proprietary and will advocate that database administration be open and non-exclusive. The FCC ruled last year that established geolocation methods are adequate for identifying television signals and preventing interference.