“We have seen tremendous excitement about the opportunity that this vast swath of free, unlicensed spectrum opened up for new and innovative services.” said Peter Stanforth CTO and cofounder of Spectrum Bridge. “We want to make it as straightforward as possible for people to ‘show my white space’, while also helping them understand how they could benefit from white space-based solutions.”
It was a common misconception that all channels left open by the TV Stations from their transistion to digital could actually be used be future white space devices -this is not the case. Because the number of broadcast TV stations varies throughout the country, the amount and frequencies of available white space channels can differ significantly at any given location.
When Spectrum Bridge put some of our spectrum mapping technology to work along with the new white space rules set forth by the FCC, we found some areas (especially metro) where even after the digital switch is complete in June there will not be any whitespace available. If white space IS available, the FCC rules are basically saying it is up to the communications industry to figure out how not to interfere with each other. When deciphered, the few rules the FCC suggested are illustrated in the pictured graphic.
The site allows wireless microphone users to pre-register their information with Spectrum Bridge, who will ensure its secure delivery to a white space database manager, once these entities have been designated by the FCC.
Since ShowMyWhiteSpace.com is actually the first site where someone can look up a specific address and find out if white space devices are an option, as well as pre-registering devices such as microphones, the response so far has been tremendous.
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