Use of TV White Spaces to Be Tested Next Month in Wilmington, N.C.
The FCC approved Spectrum Bridge as the first TV white spaces database operator and a device by Koos Technical Services as the first white spaces device, the commission said Thursday. Questions remain about when white spaces devices will hit the market in force, or whether the spectrum will meet the hype as a new kind of super Wi-Fi, industry officials told us in interviews. The completion of work on both has been a long time coming. The FCC approved the original white spaces order in November 2008, following years of often heated debate.
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Under the order (http://xrl.us/bmmooj), SpectrumBridge’s database is to go live Jan. 26, with an initial launch only in Wilmington, N.C., and environs, in what the FCC is calling a “soft start.” The order said the Wilmington area is “well suited” for an initial deployment “due to the availability of many [white spaces] channels and our expectation that its size and population will limit the number of requests for protection of unlicensed wireless microphones to a number we can reasonably process manually."
The order notes that NAB raised issues about problems it encountered trying to register “protected entities” in the database during the initial test of Spectrum Bridge’s database. The order requires Spectrum Bridge to re-open the registration portion of its test site to the public prior to the activation of the database. “This will allow parties to further test the system to ensure that it is useable and performing properly,” the order said. “We are also requiring Spectrum Bridge to again activate its comment facilities and respond to entries made there, including by making any additional modifications to its database system that may be needed."
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called the developments “an important step towards enabling a new wave of wireless innovation. ... Unleashing white spaces spectrum has the potential to exceed even the many billions of dollars in economic benefit from Wi-Fi, the last significant release of unlicensed spectrum, and drive private investment and job creation."
"Based on our own testing, the results of the public trial, and the comments submitted in response to the trial and the comments, we find that Spectrum Bridge has demonstrated that its channel availability calculator is able to properly determine the unused channels at a location that may be used by the different types of unlicensed TV bands devices and that, subject to the additional opportunity for testing required above, its registration procedures properly record, store, and retrieve protected facilities that are not in the FCC databases,” Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp said in a letter to Spectrum Bridge.
"The newly certified ‘Super Wi-Fi’ will increase the capacity of these networks tenfold, improving the wireless broadband experience for all Americans while creating new opportunities for innovation and job creation,” said Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld. NAB is still reviewing the order, a spokesman said.