White Space WiFi

There's talk in the US from the FCC (their communications regulator) about using the band of spectrum that sits next to TV broadcast spectrum (somewhere around 700mhz) for wireless networking.

This so-called "White Space" was traditionally maintained as unused in order to prevent interference.

Quote:

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on a measure that would make white space available for wireless broadband. Under the proposal, these airwaves would be treated like Wi-Fi — unlicensed and free to everybody. "It will be like the Wi-Fi you get at Starbucks, only a lot better," says FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who first proposed the idea four years ago. The FCC's goal: to serve the expanding broadband needs of U.S. consumers.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/2 ... i-fi_N.htm

Technically frequencies in these band are quite useful - penetrating walls and buildings pretty easily - meaning a good connection range can be obtained at relatively low power levels. I'm not sure how it compares to WiMAX.

I think the interesting thing here is that clearly the FCC are thinking about finding as much spectrum as possible for use in wireless networking. And that's despite the problems that plagued EarthLink and Google in the San Francisco Municipal Wireless Scheme of a couple of years ago (EarthLink and Google both wriggled out of their commitments).

I guess things have changed in the last couple of years - products like Apples iPhone must in some way drive demand for WiFi type networking.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the idea and would gladly pay a (reasonable) monthly fee for it if it were available in the UK.

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