The move to digital TV in the U.S. may give a major boost to the wireless industry. Next week, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve the use of wireless devices on the “white spaces” spectrum left over from the TV transition.
Some observers are saying the result could be “Wi-Fi on steroids,” because using that bandwidth could dramatically increase broadband wireless coverage areas and possibly eliminate the notion of isolated Wi-Fi hot spots. It could also mean wireless broadband for underserved rural areas, and the emergence of portable devices that can receive and transmit data through walls and over greater distances at speeds as high as 20 megabits per second.
‘Billion-Dollar Industries’
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has said that the first deployments using white spaces will likely be broadband wireless networks to cover university or corporate campuses. He also is optimistic that it could lead to a new wave of innovation and entrepreneurship. “There is every chance,” he told The New York Times, “of this leading to the development of one or more billion-dollar industries.”
White spaces are the unused portions of the TV spectrum left over from the transition to digital, since digital-TV channels require less bandwidth than analog ones. The FCC vote is scheduled for Sept. 23, and there is widespread expectation that the agency will approve the commercial use of the white spaces. Once the white spaces are opened up, transmissions within them would not require regulatory approval, just as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth do not.
TV stations, theaters, karaoke bars, and other companies that use wireless microphones have been concerned that using the white spaces could interfere with their transmissions, but the FCC has developed rules to minimize that interference.
Under the expected rules, mobile wireless devices using white spaces will need to avoid certain frequencies for certain locations, and…