Wireless Without Walls

Harvard’s wireless internet coverage can be patchy—just ask anyone with class in Sever. But professors who teach in the few classrooms without wireless internet should enjoy it while it lasts. Before long, new technology will bring distracting YouTube videos to every square inch of campus.

The five-member Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved new rules last week which allow wireless devices to transmit in the television spectrum, enabling faster speeds, more network capacity, and much greater range for Wi-Fi devices. Never mind the effects on college lectures—the new rules will strengthen our economy and standard of living by providing broader and better internet access across America and by allowing rapid communication between devices like TVs and computers in new and exciting ways.

The new regulations open up frequencies between analog television channels, called “white spaces,” which were originally meant to guard against interference. Waves in this lower frequency spectrum can penetrate walls, travel for miles, and transmit data as fast as a cable modem. That means single Wi-Fi hotpots could cover entire buildings or even city blocks.

The FCC’s decision to allow unlicensed access to the spectrum, rather than auctioning off sections to the highest bidder, as has been their custom in the past, is one of the plan’s biggest strengths. Though it won’t generate revenue for the federal government, open access to white spaces will give even startup companies a chance at creating unique devices which take advantage of the technology’s long range.

Given the many potential applications of the technology, allowing open access to innovators makes perfect sense. The new, stronger Wi-Fi may open up new avenues for home entertainment, allowing transfer of high-quality video clips between computers, televisions, and other screens around the house. In addition, providers of emergency services will be better able to service disaster regions or monitor health of patients.

Devices that use white spaces may also be the cheapest way to provide high-speed internet connection to remote regions of the U.S., where phone and cable companies often will not provide broadband through the landlines. Doing so may help close the sizeable connection speed gap between the U.S. and other countries like Korea or Sweden.

If freeing up white spaces can generate several billion dollars in annual revenue, according to one Microsoft study, then why didn’t the FCC act earlier? Certain technology companies began been pushing for the FCC to open up the spectrum between the TV channels as early as 2007.

The FCC dragged its feet in the past because of concerns about interference, and rightly so. If a cell phone on the street mistakenly broadcast on the same frequency as the wireless microphones inside a concert venue, it could bring a Ke$ha concert screeching to a halt. Some earlier FCC plans to placate the opposition not only provided for a database of blocked frequencies but would have also required devices to perform an electronic search of frequencies in use. However, the FCC is right to drop the search requirement, a redundancy that would have made new devices more expensive. The new plan relies on the database of used frequencies and also reserves two channels for wireless microphones, which is an apt compromise.

Pundits who worry about confusion and interference problems underestimate the ability of the free market to resolve frequency disputes on its own. The last thing phone manufacturers want to see is a newspaper article about how their product shut down the microphones at the Super Bowl.

Given the promise of the technology, it is a shame that opening up the white spaces could not have happened years ago. However, claims that the new rules come too late, are too limited, or are simply timed to affect the November election, are hogwash. Phone and computer companies will eagerly resume production on white spaces-enabled devices as soon as they are given the opportunity.

Systems using white spaces communication have already been shown to work in the field. The city of Wilmington, N.C. has already been running a successful test of a wireless network using white spaces. Their system collects data from traffic cameras, allows police to view real-time security feeds from around the city, and broadcasts data from water sensors previously reachable only by boat. Expanding the technology to big cities like New York City might be more difficult, given the number of theaters and bars which use wireless microphones, but the Wilmington case, as several tests by Microsoft and others confirm, shows that the technology is viable and has real benefits.

In this economy, we should by no means allow a vital resource, even something intangible like a frequency spectrum, go unused. Opening up the white spaces for wireless communication was a no-brainer, and the changes to the rules cannot go into effect soon enough.

Adam R. Gold ’11 is a physics concentrator in Adams House. His column appears on alternate Fridays.