Microsoft, BBC and BT trial white spaces

Microsoft is heading up a trial in Cambridge that aims to identify how white space technology can be used to support wireless connectivity requirements in towns, cities and rural areas.

White spaces are the unused parts of the ultra high-frequency TV spectrum, which are increasingly available due to the ongoing switchover to digital TV.

A consortium of large technology and media companies, including the BBC, BT, BSkyB, Nokia and Siemens, has joined forces with Microsoft to examine how unused TV spectrum can be used for mobile broadband.

"With the number of connected devices and data applications growing rapidly, and with mobile networks feeling the strain, we must find ways of satisfying the traffic demands of today and tomorrow," the consortium said in a statement.

It continued: "The trial will attempt to demonstrate that unused TV spectrum is well placed to increase the UK's available mobile bandwidth, which is critical to effectively responding to the exponential growth in data-intensive services while also enabling future innovation."

TV white spaces are expected to deliver cost-efficient broadband access to rural communities and help manage wireless data demand in urban centres.

White space networks work in a very similar way to Wi-Fi, but because TV spectrum signals travel farther and can better penetrate walls, it is likely that they will require fewer access points.

Communications regulator Ofcom has also signalled support for the trial.

"Importantly, the UK broadcast regulator Ofcom has granted a multi-site test licence that will allow the project to go ahead," Dan Reed, corporate VP for technology policy strategy at Microsoft wrote in a blog.

"Ofcom's leadership is key to helping regulators understand how TV spaces can address the spectrum crunch," he said.

Last September the US passed regulation allowing companies to make use of TV white spaces for wireless broadband, and Reed argued this was an "important first step toward allowing these new technologies to proliferate."