Continuing the Momentum in White Spaces

Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski addressed the country’s looming spectrum challenge, saying, “Though we can’t see it, spectrum is becoming increasingly essential to the daily lives of almost every American. This invisible infrastructure is the backbone of a growing percentage of our economy and our lives….In 2011, a central priority at the FCC is unleashing spectrum to spur innovation, economic growth, and job creation."

In his remarks, he mentioned Spectrum Bridge as an example of a company, “investing in developing technology” and leading “innovation around unlicensed spectrum and Super Wi-Fi…” Spectrum Bridge would like to extend our thanks to the Chairman for this recognition and applaud the FCC’s efforts to improve our nation’s communications infrastructure by expanding access to broadband and wireless services via progressive policies.

Chairman Genachowski also noted, “I hope to see companies large and small bring Super Wi-Fi and other products using this spectrum to next year's CES.” In order to achieve this ambitious goal, it will take more than progressive policies – it will also take decisive action. We ask for the FCC’s help in continuing the momentum, and eagerly await their decision on White Spaces database administrators and certification requirements.

Spectrum Bridge stands ready to move forward aggressively, once the FCC has completed these important actions, to expand the reach and quality of wireless services through innovative spectrum management and sharing technologies to help deliver Chairman Genachowski's vision. To learn more about Spectrum Bridge, and how our database-driven technology is helping to deliver alternative solutions for managing bandwidth, click here.

Neeraj Srivastava, VP of Marketing & Business Development

Spectrum and Wireless Broadband – Where do we go from here?

While many were debating the pros and cons of net neutrality the past few weeks, the FCC subtly released a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) “Promoting More Efficient Use of Spectrum Through Dynamic Spectrum Use Technologies”. To summarize, the FCC has asked the telecommunications industry for comments on how we can better utilize “dynamic spectrum access radios and techniques” to support the expanding mobile broadband usage.

As noted in the Ars Technica blog posted last week, some of the FCC proposals under consideration include:

• Extending the current white space device service, which relies on databases telling you what spectrum is available for use at any given moment

• Continue to advance sensing technologies, allowing current license owners a way to lease their unused or underutilized spectrum to other parties

• Developing technologies to group non-contiguous spectrum usage, creating more available bandwidth
  

Spectrum is the backbone of the telecommunications industry, the most critical component of enabling wireless communications. We cannot wait for more spectrum to become available to keep pace with consumer’s bandwidth demands while supporting existing network infrastructures. As with the wireless evolution of the past two decades, there is opportunity today for many new technologies to arise as solutions are proposed and developed for a more efficient spectrum utilization model.

So what can the industry do to improve broadband connections? At Spectrum Bridge, we support the Commission’s ideas, believing equipment flexibility, improved spectrum management and a better understanding of usage can benefit the industry today, without major upheavals or rule changes. Our four White Space trial networks have successfully demonstrated the “database access model” works for managing shared access for unlicensed devices in the TV bands. And SpecEx has always been about creating a marketplace where holders and buyers of spectrum could come together and leverage the secondary spectrum market, enabling spectrum to flow more freely in response to economic demand. Read more about how we are continuing to improve software and services for next generation wireless networking.

And we encourage all to add comments to the FCC Notice of Inquiry, sharing your ideas and recommendations to improve the current processes; responses are due on February 28, 2011 and can be submitted here, proceeding number 10-237.

Peter Stanforth, Chief Technology Officer

Connecting America through Technology

As the FCC begins to take on the action items from the National Broadband Plan, it is clear to see that we are making some progress towards fulfilling the four key goal areas (View progress on the Proposed 2010 Key Broadband Action Agenda Items):

• Maximizing consumer benefit and fostering competition
• Creating strong and secure public safety communications networks
• Accelerating Universal Broadband Access and adoption
• Promoting broadband infrastructure and innovation

The president’s commitment to make available 500 MHz of Federal and commercial spectrum over the next 10 years is a positive step towards building the necessary infrastructure needed to connect the country. Although this spectrum will certainly help to offload the demand for bandwidth over the next 10 years, will it be enough to keep up with the demand from new devices on the market?

In this age of smartphones, netbooks and other innovative wireless devices, demand for bandwidth is at an all time high. Some estimates indicate that over the next five years we will see an increase in wireless data between 20 and 45 times 2009 levels. In order to meet the growing demand for spectrum, it is necessary to seek out a hybrid solution – combining more efficient spectrum use and technology to cost-efficiently address the issue of spectrum scarcity.

In a fact sheet from the White House, it states: “… new technologies have the potential to free up spectrum from many of its existing uses. In combination with regulatory changes, new and emerging technologies can facilitate the repackaging, reallocation, and even sharing of spectrum. Reallocating spectrum to its most valuable use promises to be a win-win effort – creating value that not only spurs new innovations and creates new jobs, but also benefits existing spectrum users by allowing them to raise funds for transformative new investments.”

Spectrum Bridge is leading the way in terms of bringing new technology to the market to help foster innovation and to provide broadband solutions to previously unserved and underserved areas. As we deploy trial white space networks to demonstrate the capabilities of TV white spaces spectrum, we continue to realize the potential of this newly available spectrum. This month, our COO, Joe Hamilla will be presenting at the IEEE 802.19 Wireless Coexistence Working Group meeting to present our experiences with deploying trial TV White Spaces networks. Check back soon for his insights from this workshop!

Richard Licursi, CEO