Move
over Wi-Fi, there's a new wireless technology coming.
So-called
"Super Wi-Fi," which offers a bigger range than existing hotspots, is
being deployed in the United States and generating interest in a number of
countries, including Britain and Brazil.
Super
Wi-Fi is not really Wi-Fi because it uses a different frequency and requires
specially designed equipment, but it offers some of Wi-Fi's advantages, and
more.
The name
was coined by the US Federal Communications Commission in 2010, when it
approved the deployment of unused broadcast television spectrum, or so-called
"white spaces," for wireless broadband.
The long
range and use of the broadcast spectrum could allow wireless signals to travel
farther than Wi-Fi -- in theory as far as 100 miles (160 kilometers) --
although for practical reasons the range will probably be only a few miles.
Michael
Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at the New America
Foundation, said that is an advantage of using the broadcast spectrum.
"Wi-Fi
has been booming, but it has been limited by the frequencies it operates on,
which go only a few hundred meters," said Calabrese, who has been pressing
for the use of "white spaces" since 2002.
In
contrast, "television frequencies travel long distances at low power and
penetrate through buildings, trees and bad weather," Calabrese said.
This
could provide high-speed Internet to sparsely populated rural areas which lack
broadband. It could also allow consumers to create their own hotspots, which
could be used on devices while away from their homes.
The
first deployment of Super Wi-Fi came last year by Rice University in Houston,
Texas, followed by another earlier this year in Wilmington, North Carolina.
A
coalition of organizations has announced plans to deploy Super Wi-Fi to college
campuses in rural areas starting early next year in a project called AIR.U,
backed by Google and Microsoft.
Super
Wi-Fi would be on "unlicensed" spectrum, like Wi-Fi, so companies
would not bid on exclusive spectrum rights. This can lower costs. And there is
often excess capacity, especially in rural areas, where fewer TV stations
operate.
Mobile
phone companies could use Super Wi-Fi, as they do now with Wi-Fi, to relieve
some of the "spectrum crunch" from the explosion of mobile devices
like smartphones and tablets.
But in
order for Super Wi-Fi to gain traction, manufacturers of PCs and other devices
would have to make chipsets that could operate on both systems.
Dan
Lubar of the WhiteSpace Alliance, an association dedicated to new wireless
technology, said he sees Super Wi-Fi gaining momentum in the US and other
countries with unused broadcast spectrum.
"Everybody
understands the value of this spectrum," he said. "It is the biggest
swath of spectrum and has the most favorable characteristics."
Chipmaker
Texas Instruments recently joined the alliance, suggesting that equipment
makers are ready to start making Super Wi-Fi equipment.
"It's
definitely going to be here in visible ways by the middle of next year,"
Lubar said.
Calabrese
said that because of a lack of compatible equipment, most of the early Super
Wi-Fi deployments are being back converted to regular Wi-Fi signals. At some
point soon, he said, people may start using air cards or dongles to capture
Super Wi-Fi.
Gerry
Purdy, an analyst and consultant with MobileTrax LLC, was more cautious about
prospects for Super Wi-Fi, saying it may take several years to gain traction.
"It's
a good utilization of spectrum, but I'm more conservative than some
people," he said.
"Building
chipsets takes times, software standards take time; I don't think people should
have false expectations."
The most
vocal criticism comes from the Wi-Fi Alliance, which has a trademark on the
name Wi-Fi and fears consumers will be confused by incompatible technical
norms.
The
group said it supports the use of unlicensed spectrum for broadband but that
Super Wi-Fi "does not inter-operate with the billions of Wi-Fi devices in
use today" and does not "deliver the same user experience as is
available in Wi-Fi hotspots and home networks."
Although
the name is the most controversial part of Super Wi-Fi, that did not come from
the backers of the technology, but from the FCC and chairman Julius
Genachowski.
"I
wish we had thought of that. We had been calling it Wi-Fi on steroids,"
said Calabrese.
Source: MSN.Com
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