FCC Moves Closer To Opening White Space

February 2011

On January 26, 2011, the FCC designated nine companies to act as database administrators for licensing television white space. The FCC noted that it favored the database model for future frequency licensing. This topic has not been widely reported. Although there are many steps still to be taken, this may be the most important new development in communications since cell phones.

Here is some background. In 2009, television stations converted to digital signals. Analog television used analog television used an AM signal for the picture, and an FM signal for the sound. In practice, an analog TV station required a relatively wide swath of the radio spectrum to work. In contrast, digital television carries information as ones and zeroes in a steady stream.  Digital data needs only one very specific frequency. Consequently, each of the old analog stations was given specific frequency(ies) as part of the digital conversion.

TV white space refers to the frequencies that were not being used in your area that became available as part of this analog to digital conversion. In the old days of analog television, not every number had a signal. The FCC would only allow a new station to operate on a vacant channel if it could prove that none of the other stations would be bothered. With digital television’s specific and narrow frequencies, it is possible to have a signal at practically every number. Consequently, even after additional uses for (i) higher definition broadcasting, and (ii) frequencies committed for a new generation of law-enforcement communications, numerous frequencies have become available.

Obviously the “empty” stations in your area are different than the empty stations somewhere else. A geographic database is needed for what frequencies are available, where, and who is using them for what. In last week’s ruling, the FCC ruled that all nine companies that asked for the right could administer their own copy of the database, but that they have to share. That might seem like a prescription for disaster but a big part of the internet -- DNS -- already works that way. DNS is the database that tells your browser when you ask for www.fulcrum.com, it is at a specific numerical internet address that all computers can recognize. There is no single DNS server, but a huge number of them constantly sharing any changes with each other.

The FCC’s current ruling on TV white space is entirely different than prior FCC spectrum licensing. Previously, the FCC decided beforehand what bit of spectrum wave length would be used, and then held an auction to determine the winner. This meant that a single company had to win the spectrum before even beginning to develop it. This (i) increased lead times, and (ii) caused the winner to use the spectrum wave length of only a particular inflexible use (i.e., to broadcast a particular TV station).

In contrast, database licensing of white space allows a near-real-time auction of the bandwidth, much the way that companies currently bid in real time for Google ad placement. As an individual wireless service provider in an individual community won or lost bandwidth, it would send a signal to some or all of its receivers to switch to the new channel.

Google (one of the nine successful companies noted at the beginning of this article) has a goal of opening the TV white space for what it has called “Wi-Fi on Steroids”. Current Wi-Fi runs on a frequency available to low-power household appliances. At this frequency, Wi-Fi is susceptible to interference from microwave ovens and cannot penetrate walls well. By comparison, television stations cover many square miles from a single antenna. Because a network connection has to be two-way, the transmitters need be closer than that, more like the density of cell phone towers. Nevertheless, the ability to blanket a community with wireless broadband will be much easier to accomplish than under currently-available technology.

Using white space, Internet speed will be limited. The TV band is divided into 6-megahertz channels, while current Wi-Fi uses 20 megahertz channels. Generally, the bandwidth using TV white space will be around a quarter of current Wi-Fi speeds.

The old-line broadcasters have been fighting this proposal, because (i) they are concerned the FCC won't properly address interference concerns, and (ii) someone else is about to obtain spectrum that used to be theirs. Large users of wireless microphones also have concerns because they have been operating in the unused television channels for years.

One might think the cell phone companies would feel threatened by this new wireless broadband, but they are somewhat supportive. The cell phone companies hope to use the real time auction model to relieve pressure on their overstressed networks.

Perhaps the people most to benefit from this new form of wireless networking will be rural areas poorly served by existing broadband systems. These are the areas with the fewest current television stations, so they will have the most available white space channels.

White space uses for Wi-Fi should make mobile access much more affordable than current use of cellular networks. Workshops to communicate rules for the new protocols could occur as early as March 10, 2011, which would then be followed by a 45-day trial period.

With an internet connection, any number of communication forms: video, voice, etc. can be carried. The internet in 2011 and beyond is not just a communication media; it is the grand unification of communication media. It is telephone. It is television. It is radio. It is text. It is games. And with TV white space, it may truly be everywhere.

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