White spaces (radio)
This frequency allocation process creates a bandplan which for technical reasons assigns white space between used radio bands or channels to avoid interference.
Such devices are designed to detect the presence of existing but unused areas of airwaves, such as those reserved for analog television, and utilize them for White Space Internet signals.
[6] Microsoft, in a partnership with the communications authority of Argentina, Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones (ENACOM), planned to deliver wireless access to schools in the province of Mendoza on or around August, 2017.
Microsoft will borrow the White Spaces hardware to ENACOM technicians, and national satellite operator ARSAT will act as the ISP.
A pilot project by Indigo Telecom/Microsoft and the Kenyan government is reportedly delivering bandwidth speeds of up to 16 Mbit/s to three rural communities, which lack electricity - Male, Gakawa and Laikipia, using a solar-powered network.
[9] As of July 3, 2014[update], a pilot project called Citizen Connect, a collaboration between the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative, the MyDigitalBridge Foundation, and the MCA-N (Millennium Challenge Account Namibia), is slated to deliver broadband Internet to "twenty-seven schools and seven circuit offices of the Ministry of Education in Omusati, Oshana and Ohangwena", using "TV White Space technology".
[15] A second trial involved providing point-to-point Internet connectivity to five rural secondary schools in Limpopo province, with equally good results.
[17] Three temporary TV white space spectrum licenses were issued by ICASA in April 2020, response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in the 470–694 MHz band, to Mthinthe Communications, Levin Global & Morai Solutions.
The trial was conducted by Microsoft using technology developed by Adaptrum and backed by a consortium of ISP's and tech companies including Nokia, BSkyB, the BBC, and BT, with the actual network hardware being provided by Neul.
In the demonstration, the Adaptrum whitespace system provided the broadband IP connectivity allowing a client-side Microsoft Xbox to stream live HD videos from the Internet.
These applications were demonstrated under a highly challenging radio propagation environment with more than 120 dB link loss through buildings, foliage, walls, furniture, people etc.
[21] In 2017, Microsoft further expanded their research to show that small cell LTE eNodeB's operating in TV White Space could be used to provide cost effective broadband to affordable housing residents.
The delay allows time for the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to test the technology and make sure that it does not interfere with existing television broadcasts.
[24] Theatrical producers and sports franchises hoped to derail or delay the decision, arguing that their own transmissions – whether from television signals or from wireless microphones used in live music performances – could face interference from new devices that use the white spaces.
[29] Google sponsored a campaign named Free the Airwaves with the purpose of switching over the white spaces that were cleared up in 2009 by the DTV conversion process by the FCC and converted to an un-licensed spectrum that can be used by Wi-Fi-like devices.
[32] The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology released a report dated July 31, 2007 with results from its investigation of two preliminary devices submitted.
The report concluded that the devices did not reliably sense the presence of television transmissions or other incumbent users, hence are not acceptable for use in their current state and no further testing was deemed necessary.
They found that "the scanner in the device had been damaged and operated at a severely degraded level" which explained the FCC unit's inability to detect when channels were occupied.
However, the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology released a report dated October 15, 2008, which evaluated prototype TV-band white spaces devices submitted by Adaptrum, The Institute for Infocomm Research, Motorola and Philips.
On September 23, 2010, the FCC released a Memorandum Opinion and Order that determined the final rules for the use of white space for unlicensed wireless devices.
The plaintiffs allege that portable, unlicensed personal devices operating in the same band as TV broadcasts have been proven to cause interference despite FCC tests to the contrary.
[47] Also in July 2013, the Port of Pittsburgh evaluated White Space spectrum for enhancing inland waterway safety and utility with telecommunications equipment provider Metric Systems Corporation of Vista, California.
