Today the FCC approved the use of the un-used frequencies between TV channels for use in Internet communication. This desirable set of frequencies has been greatly promoted as a means of greatly expanding broadband access throughout the country due to the ability of these frequencies to travel great distances and penetrate walls. This is bad news to the ‘Wireless (cellular) industry’ which lobbied against the adoption. Additionally,the frequencies will be available on an ‘unlicensed’ basis. It will take some time for devices to be tested to assure that there is no interference with TV transmissions and for providers to figure out business models. But once completed, white space internet has the promise of expanding broadband usage into rural areas which have been ill-served by other technologies and providers.

This is more though than just Wi-Fi on steroids. This is the opening of a new era of broadband. Today, most of us at home use either cable, DSL or, God help us, modems to connect with the Internet. Cable can be fast, but its speed is cut by the number of subscribers on any given line. DSL delivers OK performance, and as for modems, the less said the better colocation linux hosting.