WASHINGTON — The nation’s top technology companies have spent millions of dollars and nearly two years building devices, poring over laptops and working in federal labs trying to come up with a new way of providing high-speed Internet to bandwidth-hungry cities as well as hard-to-reach rural regions.
Last week, the companies moved from lab to field.
Engineers from technology heavyweights, including Motorola and Philips, lugged laptops, antennas and other equipment to parks, homes and high-rises around the Washington, D.C., area, hoping to prove to the Federal Communications Commission that unlicensed airwaves between television stations, known as white spaces, could provide a new form of mobile Internet service.
Using white spaces “will provide a way to provide broadband across long distances at much faster speeds than cellphone networks and Wi-Fi,” said Jake Ward, spokesman for the Wireless Innovation Alliance, which includes Google, Microsoft, HP and Dell. The group is trying to convince regulators that using the airwaves will provide broadband to rural schools, beam high-definition online video to low-income households and let consumers stream music while sitting in highway traffic.
The stakes are high. Tech giants and Silicon Valley startups are betting that using white spaces could extend the Internet’s reach. They also hope it will spark a new wave of portable devices.
But the idea faces big hurdles. Broadcasters use adjacent airwaves to beam TV shows to viewers, and they say the technology could interfere with signals. Wireless microphone users say using white spaces could blot out their sounds.
White-space backers say their devices will be able to detect and avoid frequencies being used by broadcasters and wireless mics.
The FCC is testing prototypes built by Philips and Motorola as well as Silicon Valley startup Adaptrum and Singapore-based Institute for Infocomm Research. The Motorola device connects to a database of TV stations operating within 125 miles and scans the airwaves nearly every second for signals that pop up unexpectedly, such as a wireless microphone.
If the device senses that it is within or close to a TV station’s coverage area, it avoids that station’s frequency. It then ranks empty frequencies by their proximity to existing signals and switches to an open channel if a new signal appears.
Web between the waves
Q. What are white spaces?
A. The unused airwaves surrounding the frequencies used by TV broadcasters.
Q. How are they used?
A. Google, Microsoft and other technology firms want to use these airwaves to offer mobile Internet service, hoping it will spark new products and services. But broadcasters and microphone makers say the technology could disrupt their signals.
Q. What does that mean for me?
A. Proponents say accessing white spaces would allow consumers to surf the Web wirelessly and let companies offer broadband to underserved areas.
Q. What now?
A. The Federal Communications Commission is testing prototypes to decide whether they can operate in the airwaves, which will be available after the February switch to digital television.
The Washington Post
