Comments on: White spaces are a go! (at least in Wilmington) http://gigaom.com/2011/12/22/white-spaces-are-a-go-at-least-in-wilmington/ Sun, 19 May 2013 16:33:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: BOBBY VASSALLO http://gigaom.com/2011/12/22/white-spaces-are-a-go-at-least-in-wilmington/#comment-801663 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:56:42 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=459447#comment-801663 Lobbyists are doing their best to make certain congress sells off this spectrum to be sure only the largest carriers can continue monopolizing the airwaves, and your pocket book. Unlicensed, counties and municipalities might even put up their own networks, spurring education, public works and SCADA projects, video-surveillance in high crime areas, or traffic control, and many other uses. A judge did rule that Internet is as much a public utility as water or power, so the door is open for municipalities, assuming a city has the desire to actually give back to its citizens. Novel idea.

Numerous smaller wireless companies would roll this opportunity out fast. Alas, once spectrum is sold off to the major carriers, it will be years before availability. Why? They don’t need to rush, as the big providers have all the business already.

As far as a free service, I haven’t seen many of them work. However, we worked a project for a small town in Texas which put a “tech fee” on each citizen’s water bill. Only a dollar, it covered the monthly costs for the town. Citizens got relief from the (usual) $49.99 a month going to the incumbent carrier and the city council got re-elected. Win Win! Best of all, a city could provide speeds the carriers only promise!

Bobby Vassallo
http://citywirelessconsulting.com

]]> By: Kevin Fitchard http://gigaom.com/2011/12/22/white-spaces-are-a-go-at-least-in-wilmington/#comment-784822 Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:51:40 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=459447#comment-784822 You’re right Philip, that’s a more precise description of white spaces, though I don’t believe it necessarily implies white spaces are guard bands. You’ll have to forgive me a little creative license for the sake of brevity.

]]> By: Philip Leigh http://gigaom.com/2011/12/22/white-spaces-are-a-go-at-least-in-wilmington/#comment-784788 Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:42:26 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=459447#comment-784788 Puh-leez.

TV Band White Spaces are *not* accurately described as “airwave gaps between TV broadcasts”. The phrase implies they are the guard-bands between individual channels — such as between channels 7 and 8.

In reality, TV Band White Spaces are the *unused TV channels* in a given geographic location. They can only be used as White Space if the broadcast contours of those same stations from nearby cities do not overlap the applicable geographic area.

]]> By: Steve Ardire http://gigaom.com/2011/12/22/white-spaces-are-a-go-at-least-in-wilmington/#comment-781297 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:19:00 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=459447#comment-781297 FCC Chairman Genachowski good but let’s get many more white space channels across America then create Super Wi-Fi.

AT&T, Verizon, Comcast et al can still be friends ;)

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