White Space is a term used in telecommunications used to describe frequencies that should be used for broadcasting although but not used anymore. So guess what happened after everyone was forced to switch to digital TV? A bunch of frequencies out there were turned into white space so we should see plenty of networks use the freed up bands in the near future.

The first white space network is currently running in an experimental stage in Claudville, Virginia. The town’s school and computer center were equipped by Dell, Microsoft and the TDF Foundation but we have no white space network performance reports yet. Hopefully everything goes well so other similar rural areas can upgrade their current Internet connections.

via busineswire

After the White House clearly stated that it doesn’t support the free nationwide wireless Internet idea, the FCC has decided to cancel its December 18th meeting. The vote has been clearly delayed and we have no information on when the FCC will meet again for the free spectrum. All we know now is that the Bush administration has rejected the idea so everyone might be waiting for the Obama administration to change things around. Probably January will bring us more information but I wouldn’t expect free Internet any time soon.

via WSJ

The FCC agreed to the usage of that White Space spectrum and people assumed that free nationwide wireless Internet access will arrive with that spectrum. But guess who shot down the project? The White House!

The FCC was supposed to vote next week on a plan to auction that 25MHz of spectrum from 2155MHz to 2180MHz band. The final buyers would have been required to offer free wireless broadband service but that’s not going to happen now.

The representative of the White House, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said:

The administration believes that the (airwaves) should be auctioned without price or product mandate. The history of FCC spectrum auctions has shown that the potential for problems increases in instances where licensing is overly prescriptive or designed around unproven business models.

What will happen next? Well the FCC is considering the White House point of view but in the same time it wants free Internet access for the masses. We’ll keep you updated!

via Yahoo