The FCC may certify Spectrum Bridge as the first TV white...

The FCC may certify Spectrum Bridge as the first TV white spaces database with permission to start commercial operations in the U.S., industry and agency officials told us last week. That could lead to deployment of the first commercially available white spaces technology as early as Q1. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology earlier this year completed a 45-day public trial of the Spectrum Bridge database and this month began a 45-day trial of rival database provider Telcordia Technologies, making those the first two of the 10 commission-designated database operators to be ready for trials. White spaces devices, including one produced by Spectrum Bridge’s partner KTS, are being tested in the OET lab, and could soon be certified for commercial use as well, said industry executives. Wireless providers and equipment makers see FCC approval of white spaces databases and radios that connect with the databases as potentially opening a market with $5 billion to $7 billion in annual sales. They say the market would be initially for broadband from fixed locations in rural areas, and eventually if the technology is proven to work for portable, unlicensed devices capable of getting broadband service. “This technology could be a very good opportunity to introduce cost-effective high-speed broadband into some underserved or unserved rural communities,” said John Malyar, Telcordia’s chief architect of interconnection solutions. “There’s a large opportunity here for looking at other applications of this, with the personal portables or even the machine-to-machine communications, both here and in other parts of the world. Showing that a database can support dynamic spectrum access has broader applications than just the TV bands frequencies.” Hardware producer Carlson Wireless expects to submit its second-generation white spaces device to the FCC for testing in January, CEO Jim Carlson said. “It’s a real chicken and egg situation.” Until the database and the equipment are both certified, companies are only able to do field tests under experimental licenses from the commission. Ultimately, the databases must all be able to interoperate with each other, once they've all passed FCC muster. Carlson has been testing rural broadband and hot spots on Native American tribal lands. “Our passion in this is to get the rural users of this country, including the Native Americans and businesses and farms, to be connected so we can be economically more viable,” he said. An FCC spokesman declined to comment. Companies are waiting for the FCC to act on petitions for reconsideration, as well as objections raised by NAB and requests from the equipment makers for flexibility in the fixed transmitter height requirements and a relaxed adjacent channel spectrum mask, to allow greater throughput. NAB’s comments were largely logistical and broadcasters primarily want assurance that the FCC will continue to monitor implementation and guard against interference, said Victor Tawil, the association’s senior vice president of technology. Ultimately, the commercial space could contain multiple possible databases and radios so that