Microsoft makes white-spaces breakthrough for rural broadband

Microsoft researchers have taken the next step toward turning old UHF analog TV spectrum into rural wireless broadband networks that would operate like Wi-Fi but with greater range, bypassing incumbent Internet providers like AT&T in the process. “Imagine the potential if you could connect to your home [Internet] router from up to a mile,” Ranveer Chandra, a Microsoft researcher, told MIT’s Technology Review in an article posted today.

Working with researchers at Harvard University, Microsoft developed a set of protocols for wireless Internet networks using “white space,” the unlicensed spectrum previously used for broadcast television signals, in a manner similar to today’s Wi-Fi systems. They call it “White-Fi.” Redmond has been working on such technology for more than two years and was one of several companies to get a license from the Federal Communications Commission to create prototype white-space devices. Google, Dell, HP, Philips and Intel have all voiced plans to develop white-space devices, with many seeing the former TV spectrum as a way to bypass the last-mile networks of incumbent broadband providers like AT&T and Qwest Communications. In addition, the white-space spectrum Microsoft is using (between 512 megahertz and 698 MHz) offers a longer range than today’s 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks, promising greater reach in rural areas...