Recent Industry News & Developments

FCC Updates White Space Device Rules
TV Technology
The FCC released the Third Memorandum Opinion and Order (FCC 12-36) regarding use of unlicensed "white space" devices in the TV broadcast bands.

How white space brought broadband to a remote Scottish Isle
PC Pro (blog) - Apr 11, 2012 
BT has been for several months running a technical trial of white spacebroadband on the Isle of Bute, west of Glasgow. Ten farmers have been given connections this way, with a mast at Kilchattan Bay spitting out spectrum to five farms to the northeast …

Cambridge stages white space summit
Business Weekly - Apr 11, 2012 
TTP Group's head of wireless, Richard Walker, will talk about the need to serve rural communities with white space capability while Nick Welsh, information assurance & technical adviser to the UK Cabinet Office, will address the implications for Ad hoc ...

Broadcast TV Channel Sharing Moves Forward
TV Technology
The FCC will take another step in preparation for the incentive auction of UHF TV spectrum recently allowed by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.

Spectrum Question Colors Broadcasters Convention
National Journal
Congress was still weighing proposals that some broadcasters worried could force them to give up their lifeblood: spectrum.

More Spectrum, Better Health
Daily Yonder
That's why the FCC needs to open up new spectrum now. By Alan Morgan Alan Morgan, Chief Executive Officer for the National Rural Health Association.

Let's work together to keep 'spectrum highway' humming
Great Falls Tribune
Something called "spectrum" is the highway that allows mobile voice and data traffic to move. As more and more people adopt smartphones and tablets that are data-hungry—downloading movies, games and apps, the lanes of the spectrum highway get more and ...

White House Needs to Shake Loose Underutilized Government Spectrum
Huffington Post - Apr 12, 2012
That plan included the essential objective of identifying 500 MHZ of additional mobile spectrumcapacity to support exponential growth in the wireless web.


New TV white-space rules provide more flexibility in rural areas
FierceBroadbandWireless - Apr 8, 2012
Wireless Internet service providers hoping to ply their trade in TV white space are cheering three significant FCC rule changes that will make it easier to use the spectrum to deliver broadband service in remote and rural locations, particularly those …

Here is a very interesting and objective viewpoint for the use of unlicensed spectrum for the shared use of public airwaves from a Mark Cooper paper written in January 2012...

Below is the link to the Mark Cooper paper: Efficiency gains and consumer benefits of unlicensed access to the public airwaves.

http://www.markcooperresearch.com/SharedSpectrumAnalysis.pdf

Get Ready for the Next Evolution beyond WiFi…

Get Ready for the Next Evolution beyond WiFi…

With the most recent regulatory and industry developments in TV White Space, it is the dawn of a new generation of innovative wireless products and services. Spectrum Bridge has received approval from the FCC to operate the TV white space platform which will begin providing service to devices beginning in Wilmington, NC on January 26, 2012.

With the likes of Google and Microsoft advocating the use of white space, the marketplace will soon be filled with millions of devices looking to capitalize on the wireless enhancements this technology enables.

In a recent article with Business Insider, Microsoft’s Dan Reed, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Technology Policy Group said, "If you look at the economic returns that have been accrued by WiFi, it's a multi-billion economic impact. We absolutely believe this has the same potential, given the explosive demand for wireless communications -- perhaps even larger,"

We couldn’t agree more.

Spectrum Bridge is excited about the next evolution beyond WiFi and the major impact it will have on the wireless industry from a global perspective. For more information on TV white spaces, click here.

Link to the referenced article...
FCC press release


-Long Hoang, Product Marketing

Spectrum Bridge Submits Report from Public Trial

The FCC TV white spaces database public trial period has come to an end. The 45 day trial started on September 19th and was successfully completed on November 2nd. Spectrum Bridge formally filed a Summary Report of the TVWS database trial which can be found here on the FCC’s electronic filing system.

We are now one step closer to the official certification of the world’s first TV white spaces database solution. The FCC and OET have done an outstanding job throughout the process of moving the concept into a real-time working solution. The FCC will now open the floor for the comment period, which allows all interested parties to submit any final comments.

As a result of the completion of the 45 day trial, we have respectfully requested that the FCC certify the database solution. We believe that this technology has the potential to revolutionize the wireless industry as it can be implemented in additional spectrum bands to help alleviate the spectrum scarcity issues currently facing the wireless industry. We look forward to seeing your comments about the trial and implementing a live solution to wireless users in the very near future!

-Andrew Pielack, Communications Coordinator

Spectrum Bridge Updates

When I began working in the wireless industry during the fall of 1989, few could have predicted its unprecedented growth, or how much our daily lives would be transformed by the rise of smartphones, tablets and mobile applications. As a result of innovation, the increasing demand for wireless spectrum will soon exceed availability. Unless significant changes are made to address this, the growth of wireless services could be limited due to a lack of available spectrum (we are experiencing the early effects now, as some carriers have instituted data caps to conserve capacity).

It was this perfect storm that drew me to Spectrum Bridge, a company that’s on the leading edge of developing spectrum optimization technology that will help address this looming crisis and accelerate the innovation of new wireless services. It’s a great honor and opportunity for me to partner with Spectrum Bridge co-founders Richard Licursi and Peter Stanforth, as they share a passion for innovation and have proven track records in building successful companies.

My primary focus as the new CEO of Spectrum Bridge will be to establish the long term vision for the company, transitioning the organization beyond the developmental stage to become a full service provider for connected wireless devices. I will be working closely with Peter to do so, as he continues to successfully drive the company’s technology strategy while managing our core IP portfolio. Richard has elected to move to the position of Executive Board Chairman, where he will continue to leverage his influence with industry leaders and legislators to help the company navigate today’s telecom market and regulatory environment.

The strength of the company’s core IP and the virtualization of our scalable architecture provides us with a unique opportunity to help the industry unlock the full potential of underutilized spectrum. Our objective is to meet these rapidly growing demands for bandwidth, and through the Spectrum Bridge solution, better manage shared spectrum and coexistence of the world’s mobile devices. We remain strongly committed to the following goals: maintaining our leadership position, improving spectrum utilization worldwide, and making unlimited connectivity to tomorrow’s wireless services a reality.

Our first step towards that realization is the development of an unlicensed TV White Spaces solution to enable fixed devices for rural broadband service, smart city and smart utility grid services. Earlier in the year, we were one of ten companies chosen by the FCC to develop and administer such a solution, and are the first to have a system pre-certified and involved in a limited public trial (you can find the public notice here). We have also collected a wealth of data and information from each of the market trials conducted over the past two years, and will incorporate what we’ve learned into our future service platform.

These are exciting times at Spectrum Bridge, and we look forward to updating you as we have new developments to report.

-Rod Dir, President & CEO

Microsoft Joins the TV White Space Race

The Federal Communications Commission has just conditionally designated Microsoft Corporation as a TV bands database administrator. The Order states that “Microsoft is the tenth entity designated to develop a database that will enable the introduction of this new class of unlicensed broadband wireless devices in the TV spectrum.” The announcement comes as a surprise to some industry stakeholders and excitement to others. We at Spectrum Bridge welcome Microsoft to help further solidify the use of unlicensed spectrum to spur new innovation and technologies.

In addition to Microsoft becoming a database administrator, the IEEE, an association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity, has recently completed the 802.22™ standard for wireless regional area networks in TV white spaces. According to the press release, “IEEE 802.22 systems will provide broadband access to wide regional areas around the world and bring reliable and secure high-speed communications to under-served and un-served communities.”

The completion of TV white space standards and the addition of a tenth database administrator strongly indicate that the FCC is fully committed to enhancing the unlicensed wireless industry and ecosystem moving forward. The database administrators are not only tasked with ensuring protection to incumbent users, but spurring innovation where database technology did not previously exist. As referenced in many industry white papers, 90-95 percent of spectrum sites idle at any given time. If this database approach model is adopted in additional frequency bands, it may very well help alleviate some of the current spectrum crisis issues at hand.

All of the database administrators are anxiously awaiting the completion of the certification process and trial period that ensues. Once the certification process is completed, commercial products will then be made available to support many of the unserved and underserved communities in America with rural broadband and other applications. There are endless possibilities beyond the TV white spaces and Spectrum Bridge is very excited for the future of database managed wireless technology. For a preview of future technology to come, see the examples of use cases developed by our Universal Spectrum Access technology model.

- Andrew Pielack, Communications Coordinator

Viable Alternatives to Current Methods by Promoting the Secondary Spectrum Market

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) recently issued a letter strongly opposing aspects of a draft bill entitled “Spectrum Innovation Act of 2011.” The open letter to the government cites that “aspects of the draft would threaten the continued development of affordable fixed broadband services to Americans living in rural, unserved and underserved areas of the country.” The WISPA organization has a point and raises some very significant issues, but we should not ignore the spectrum policy and innovations that the industry has been building upon over the past decade, specifically the secondary spectrum market.

Spectrum Bridge firmly believes that there are viable alternatives to current spectrum allocation methods if industry continues to promote secondary markets. In an earlier blog post, Spectrum Bridge mentioned that the secondary spectrum market was created by the FCC to enable “spectrum to flow more freely among users and uses in response to economic demand.” The demand for spectrum continues to increase on a daily basis, but there are alternatives to utilizing unused bandwidth in the U.S. as opposed to drafting and passing bills dedicated to current Spectrum Auction processes. The auction process is, realistically, only available to a small subset of spectrum users and only executed by the FCC when large swathes of spectrum are available. So in addition to limiting bidders much spectrum sits in inventory in the hope that there will eventually be enough to justify an auction. Secondary markets are the only option for many spectrum users and they can also be an outlet for the FCC to permit use of spectrum sitting idle in inventory.

Thanks to the FCC efforts and continued innovation in technology, industry is now able to stand on its own to help allocate unused frequencies on an as needed basis. Major industry players are beginning to take a larger role in how spectrum is allocated and managed. For example, Qualcomm and Nokia have recently proposed the concept of Authorized Shared Access which allows spectrum sharing via cognitive network technologies which are aimed at benefiting consumers and helping to sustain economic growth.

With the whole notion of viable alternatives to current methods, the government will not necessarily need to be in the involved, industry is more than capable of managing spectrum and allocating it to meet demand. Spectrum management solutions and secondary markets will see an increase in value over time as the ever increasing spectrum scarcity continues to burden policy makers in the near term. The increasing role of industry giants only emphasizes the desire for alternatives to current methods such as shared access and secondary markets.

- Peter Stanforth, CTO