Ofcom reveals breadth and depth of UK TV white spaces pilots

The UK is working hard to share spectrum more effectively - by applying new dynamic sharing technology to tap unused TV white spaces, in the first instance. The TV white spaces are gaps left in the UHF TV broadcast bands (the frequency range is 470 to 790 MHz), to prevent high power TV broadcasts from interfering with each other. These gaps have already been used intensively within theatres, studios and other venues, for wireless microphones and other programme-making devices (referred to as PMSE applications) - however much capacity remains untapped across the UK.

Last month BBC Newsnight featured news of how white space technology could help rural broadband on the Isle of Wight and life in future cities - beginning in Glasgow.

Now, Ofcom has just released details of the white spaces applications across the UK, being carried out under the umbrella of its UK TV White Spaces Pilot. The applications range from allowing Orkney ferry users to stay connected to the Internet, to enabling London Zoo's meerkats to start their own live Youtube channel. Broadband connections as well as 'Internet of Things' applications feature in the deployments.

Larkhill is pleased to be closely connected with the Glasgow white spaces pilot - working (on behalf of Microsoft) with 6Harmonics, the Centre for White Space Communications (University of Strathclyde), Mediatek, Sky, Spectrum Bridge, and the Scottish Government. The Glasgow Pilot builds on experience from an earlier trial of TV white spaces in improving broadband on the Isle of Bute. 

The broad geographic spread of diverse applications illustrates the growing UK interest this technology - following action by US regulators to allow licence exempt use of the technology, back in 2010. Regulators in Africa and Asia are now following UK and US regulatory developments in this field.

The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (whose members include Facebook, Google and Microsoft) has been assisting with the development of pilot white space deployments across Africa and Asia (where Singapore is particularly well advanced in its preparations to allow commercial applications of the white spaces technology). In Europe, the CEPT and ETSI have both laid important foundations for enabling this technology to be used in a harmonised way across the single market.

Wi-Fi is being adapted to take advantage of the improved coverage that white spaces enables - indoors and outside. The new IEEE 802.11af standard builds on the Gigabit performance offered by 802.11ac, by adding capacity in the TV white spaces bands. This is achieved through the new dynamic spectrum access technology, in which devices consult geolocation databases to determine which UHF channels they can use and with what power limit. So we can look forward to Wi-Fi access points which offer three bands: TV whitespaces as well as 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.

Ofcom expects to complete its process for allowing licence exempt use of this spectrum (and hence commercialisation), early in the new year.

Larkhill has been following the process since around 2006 from early days in the US through to today - so we are well placed to help organisations that wish to understand the potential impact of this exciting new technology.