FCC opened up unused space between broadcast TV channels

[pocket-radio]

I’ve been saying this for a long time, so get ready for more wireless gadgets.
By a vote of 5-0, the FCC agreed to open up the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels -- for wireless broadband service for the public. These spectrum signals have much longer range than today's Wi-Fi technology and broadband access can be spread using fewer base stations resulting in better coverage at lower cost.

More gadgets are on the horizon that will easily communicate with the internet.
Moore's law predicts power and memory will increase while prices will drop.
Just look what’s taken place with the average PC.

AM/FM won't go away soon. However, HD is obsolete, dead out of the box. Save the box your radio came in, it might be worth some value on E-bay someday.

Also, 1 billion Wi-Fi chips are projected to being produced this year. And unlike iBiquity these chips won’t sit in some warehouse.

I predict more Wifi chips will be sold than iBiquity can produce.

Read more:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/vote-for-broadband-in-white-spaces.html

 

[rbrucecarter5]

These spectrum signals have much longer range than today's Wi-Fi technology and broadband access can be spread using fewer base stations resulting in better coverage at lower cost.

About time!

(1) HD radio - a few more formats.
(2) Satellite - a couple of hundred more formats.
(3) Streaming - virtually ALL broadcast stations and a lot of internet only.

I'll take door number 3!!! The hell with what radio corporations and even local stations think I want to hear - its all about choice. And I choose what I want to hear.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

By a vote of 5-0, the FCC agreed to open up the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels -- for wireless broadband service for the public.

Actually, what you said and what the link said is only part of the story.

The PUBLIC is currently using part of that space, and they are being evicted.

What the FCC apparently voted to do Tuesday was to bundle up all that space and put it up for auction. We don't know who will end up buying the space at auction time but the known players who put a lot of effort into convincing the FCC to take this particular route are Google, Microsoft and Motorola. So, the FCC did not vote to open this space up to the PUBLIC, but to open it up to corporate ownership.

If you go to a rock concert or country music concert and the stars are free to wander the stage with their wireless headset microphone, they just got evicted. (It will take some time, but they are evicted.)

If you watch sports on TV and you see reporters wander around with wireless mics interviewing people, they just got evicted.

I understand NASCAR events use these frequencies. They too just got evicted.

Go to church? Does you pastor have the ability to wander away from his/her pulpit because of a wireless mic? Your church just got evicted.

So, in this land-grab, or spectrum-grab, did the FCC come up with a "reservation" where all these nomad entertainers, reporters, and clerics can relocate to? No, they were simply told to "Go Pound Sand".

My modest little house of worship uses 9 or 10 of these devices. At a thousand bucks each, this is going to be a painful eviction.

O. K. [ RANT MODE OFF ]

Many of these wireless microphones are safe for now.... until Google or somebody wins and auction, buys some hardware and starts building more towers in your backyard. But when they start sending out letters saying: "Our engineers have been doing receiver tests and we see you have an illegal signal in OUR spectrum. You will cease and desist immediately!" then our devices will be boat-anchors.

Oh, well. November 4th was election day, I'm trying to remember. Which party was it that dominated the ballot box? Oh, yes. Democrats. I'll bet our letter writing campaigns, our visit to their offices will get a little more traction in congress that we got with the FCC trying to convince them that some space somewhere in the spectrum should be made available "the entertainers".

 

[JH_Radio]

I dont understand something here. How did everyone get evicted? Is it because wireless mikes etc use the spectrum currently on the TV band? or....
John
Bensalem, PA

 

[pocket-radio]

Here’s a horror show. With ubiquitous internet access. radio’s drive time competitors have just become unlimited. The morning team might compete head on with people checking their emails as they drive to work. Downloading mp3’s, listening personalized streaming music from Pandora like services. Or, having the news headlines read from the front page of the New York Times, thanks to your computers own voice.

iBiquity's addressable receivers may give total content control to its users. Listeners might be programming their own music. Pandora might come alive on HD radios.
Then again why would you need an HD radio?

HD radio, obsolete out of the box..

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I dont understand something here. How did everyone get evicted? Is it because wireless mikes etc use the spectrum currently on the TV band? or....

Yes. When purchasing wirless mics as we know them today, you choose those that will work on what is a vacant channel in your community. The frequency that works very well in my community might not work in your community.

Wireless mics are unlicensed. (The manufacturers work with the FCC on what is permissable, and like so many gadgets we buy today, they must meet FCC requirements of radiation that could interfere with other devices.) They have not operated illegally.... they simply are not granted protection on the frequency they use. If the FCC grants the spectrum you are using to some other purpose that is licensed, you are evicted. Go find another location. If your mic goes dead or starts receiving some over-riding outside signal, don't call the FCC and complain... just move out. Move on.

 

[jras20]

I don't think FM/AM will ever go away. HDRadio is to crappy to try to get even 30 miles. Some people may have better luck than I do, but I'm about to give up on HD. I have been Podcasting a lot lately. Its great to listen to the music you want

 

[Carmine5]

In time, there will be a new generation of devices, including wireless microphones, that will automatically detect and use whatever white space channel is open. No need to manually select from a limited number of frequencies on a wireless mic system.

Personally, I'm in favor of this proposal. Television broadcasters have gotten away with "hogging" too much spectrum for too long. Television tuners have greater sensitivity and selectivity now then in times past and the digital signal is slimmer than its analog counterpart. Besides, only about 15% of the U.S. population get their television over the air anyway, so there would be little impact on the public's TV reception, if any.

The White Space proposal represents a much better use of these TV guard bands. It will help propel the U.S. far ahead of other countries in terms of wireless internet use as well as make the internet more affordable and accessible.

C5

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

The White Space proposal represents a much better use of these TV guard bands.

I am reading multiple discussion groups on this subject, and it can be confusing.

You are using the term "TV guard bands" as though the TV is staying where it is and these devices have just been using the space between existing TV channels.

From other messages I have read, some writers are portraying this "White Space" as an area that will no long have any active TV stations after the move to Digital TV is completed. These people are not talking about Guard Bands, but the bands themselves which are being vacated by TV.

Some one help us out here with definitions.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Stations have to be spaced out from each other to not interfere with each other. It's a ballance of location, frequency, and power. What Google and Motorola want to do is put their data in on a localized lower-powered basis where the TV stations are far enough away it won't hopefully cause interference to TV reception. Their system will most likely do that O.K. because it can detect where there the TV signals are and avoid them automatically. What I don't belive it will be able to avoid very well is the wireless mics and IFB units. Their tower could be located in such a way that it couldn't come close to hearing a little wireless mic putting out milliwats of power but the receiver for the wireless mic could be getting their crap. Here lies the problem as others have mentioned. Now, the next challenge is that the MAJORITY of the people that are using wireless mics aren't really authorized to use them. The rules that haven't been inforced by the FCC over the course of time preclude the general public including theaterical performaces, churches, and other non-brodcasters from using the TV band for wireless mic channels. The mics were marketed with the general public in mind but technically they shouldn't have ever been using them. Now it's hard to argue with the FCC about reserving the right to continue the useage of the mics without this new white-space data system interfering because basically most users of the wireless mics shouldn't have been there in the first place. As a broadcaster that owns wireless mics I am very unhappy that, for my ligit purpose of using the mics for broadcasting, I will eventually have an expensive doorstop. Thank you FCC and your whoring out of OUR channels once again to big corporate.

 

[kenglish]

There is no auction being conducted for "White Space" channels. It is being opened up as an unlicensed "free-for-all" system. The money is to be made in selling hardware and services for their "Wi-Fi on Steroids" as they call it. The big boys want to sell everyone a TV-band transmitter/receiver in their laptop, or a bigger one (4 watts) on the side of their house or apartment. Then, using proprietary software, they can transmit and recieve on the TV bands.

One of the unforseen consequences I see is,
why would any mega-corp that has already bid billions of dollars on 700 MHz spectrum (and, accepted the many FCC requirements that go along with it) STILL want to make those payments (and obey the extra requirements0 when they now have un-licensed spectrum in virtually the same bands? Won't they be likely to just drop those "Pay-to-Play" channels and go with the "white space" channels? Too bad the Government is already spending the money they planned to get from auctions.

One of the proposed systems will rely on Geo-location....knowing where the WSD currently is operating (via GPS) and comparing it to a list of known broadcast transmitters. Funny, but if I'm trying to receive a TV station that's 50-100 miles away, it doesn't matter if the interfering transmitter knows where the TV station is....it's where my receiving antenna is located that matters!!
This is kinda like being told where the beer was brewed. It doesn't matter where it was brewed, what matters is where the guy who's drinking it currently is, in relation to my car!

 

[tomservo]

Kind of an eye-opener for me, this thread.

I was unaware that there were any devices using unused TV spectrum, aside from a few cities having channels 14-20 or thereabout reallocated for public safety and business use. My impression was most wireless mics being located in the 174 MHz range or 450-451 455-456MHz range. ???

 

[kenglish]

Most of the wireless mikes used by TV crews are outside the 2-51 core channels, and are already scheduled to be replaced next year.

Maybe we should just be content to trash them all, and go corded....or, maybe infra-red ;D .