October 15th, 2008Future of spectrum looking whiter
The FCC moved a step closer today to opening up “white space” spectrum in the US. White space refers to the relatively common areas of blank or otherwise underused spectrum particularly in areas licensed for TV. In every country spectrum authorities license almost every single piece of the airwaves (often to the highest bidder) as a way for for governments to a) make money b) ensure that spectrum users use spectrum in an “orderly” manner without interfering with each other c) best manage the “scarcity” of spectrum in the public interest d) to enforce other public policy objectives like Canadian content or other regulations (CRTC etc.)
The trouble with this scheme is that from place to place there are inevitably chunks of spectrum here and there that are underutilized.
On the other hand, very little of the useful stretches of the electromagnetic spectrum is actually open for anyone to use. Only a few narrow bands (eg around 2.4 and 5.6 Mhz) are open for anyone anyone to use without a license, so long as devices conform to strict power limits. And so ever cordless phone, wifi router, baby monitor etc. cram all their activity into these bands. In fact some argue that in the last 20 years on a per MHz basis, there has been far more data transferred and far more innovation squeezed into the tiny unlicensed bands than all the rest of the licensed spectrum combined.
The other thing that has happened in the last 50 years is that radios and the microchips attached to them have gotten a lot smarter. Radios (think wifi for example) have gotten ever better at efficiently using spectrum and while also dealing with significant amounts of would-be interference from other nearby devices (diminishing arguments b and c above).
So some folks called the White Space Group, strongly supported by the PC industry, have been lobbying the FCC to open up white spaces for any unlicensed device to use, so long as those devices play nice with any nearby licensed broadcasters.
Many cable, TV and cellular companies have come out strongly against giving away “free” white space spectrum on the grounds that plentiful devices transmitting and receiving on these frequencies could cause interference with their existing, ahem, business models.
Fundamentally, so long as the technology works, unlicensing white space is the right public policy choice. But it is all irrelevant in Canada until the FCC decides first. It’s unlikely there would be any cool disruptive new wireless connectivity options in a computer or mobile device near you unless there was also a US market to sell them to…
link: FCC looks set to back “white spaces” as Chairman signs on
