White Space Networks May Be in Use by 2013 in the UK

White Space spectrum, a portion of the radio frequencies spectrum that has become unused now that TV broadcasters have switched to digital transmissions in many countries, holds a lot of promise for wireless networks.

Any free spectrum could be a boost for mobile communication channels, which are rather crowded in most places, but this frequency range has some unique advantages in that signal can travel long distances with only a small amount of energy used.

The prospect is to create wireless connections, for data in particular, to offset the congested 3G lanes. What's more, it's significantly cheaper to cover relatively large areas with using White Space frequencies.

These advantages have not been unnoticed by interested parties, but so far, only a few experimental projects have been built.

If the UK has its way though, the first commercial devices and services which utilize White Space may be available to consumers as early as 2013.

UK regulator Ofcom has decided to allow commercial use of the White Space spectrum and is pushing to get companies using it as soon as possible.

White Space will be open for use to any device and service, i.e. be licence-exempt, like the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequencies used by WiFi networks.

But, just as WiFi networks can overlap and have to share the same spectrum, White Space networks face the same problem, amplified several times since the significantly broader range means that a lot more devices will be used in the same area.

To offset this, there are plans to create a universal database, handled by several third parties, which would catalogue all of the known devices in an area.

White Space routers would check these databases to help them determine what 'channel' to use within the White Space spectrum. Apparently, six companies in the UK have expressed interest in running these databases.