Google Rolls Out Experimental White Space Broadband

Google's big plan to bring fiber connections to as much as 500,000 Americans are still underway, but the company is experimenting on a smaller scale with other broadband technologies, putting to good use the white space spectrum left unused after TV broadcasts went digital.

"I’m in Logan, Ohio, today to announce that Spectrum Bridge, the Hocking Valley Community Hospital, and Google have teamed up to deploy a broadband network using the TV white spaces," Larry Alder, Business Operations Project Manager at Google wrote.

"This is an exciting new deployment – the first of its kind for a hospital – demonstrating the potential of the TV white spaces to improve broadband and spark new applications in healthcare," he added.

"First responder vehicles, hospital grounds as well as the health department are being equipped with high-speed wireless Internet access. Additionally, the hospital is using the network to manage its outdoor video surveillance system," he continued.

White space spectrum holds a lot of promise, though, there are still some steps to be taken before the technology can be widely deployed.

Once all of the technical hurdles are overcome, the biggest of which is making sure the transmissions don't interfere with other communications on those frequencies and with each other, white space networks could solve a lot of issues for wireless internet.

White space networks have a much broader reach than any of the existing wireless technologies and even some of the latest 4G technology. They're also relatively cheap to deploy and maintain.

Google is just experimenting with the technology at this point. However, once the FCC makes its final decision about white space spectrum use, next week, Google and other companies should be able to start rolling out this type of networks on a larger scale.