Wireless Spectrum Deal Could Unleash Super Wi-Fi

Imagine Wi-Fi that spans two kilometers; or a car safety system that beams news of an accident, vehicle to vehicle, from far ahead on a lightly traveled road; or a mobile phone whose calls almost never drop.

These and other new communications technologies could be helped along by a deal announced in Washington last week that permits the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to sell off unused TV spectrum in two years. The agreement covers lower frequencies—previously set aside for analog TV broadcasts—that allow for longer-range, higher-capacity communications. But making use of the frequencies will require technology capable of flitting rapidly between different frequencies at high speed.

“This will absolutely open up new innovation,” says Dipankar Raychauduri, director of Rutgers University’s WinLab, a leading wireless research lab. “It’s really quite a breakthrough, because the U.S. would be the first country to allocate such spectrum.”

  1. king-owl said: CSIRO in Australia has actually been working with the old analogue TV soectra for a while now experimenting with giving high-speed internet access to remote rural communities.
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