'White Spaces' Locator Site Launches
ShowMyWhiteSpace.com Promises To Help Users Find All Open TV Channels
John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 2/23/2009 7:00:00 AM
A new Web site will launch Monday that promises to help Web surfers find "all the open TV channels" available in their area for use by unlicensed, mobile devices.
ShowMyWhiteSpace.com is the brainchild of the folks at Spectrum Bridge, and employs much of the know how and backbone of its SpecEx.com site, a sort of Ebay for identifying spectrum the FCC allows to be traded in a secondary market.
The Federal Communications Commission last fall authorized the use of the so-called white spaces between TV channels for mobile broadband, radios and other spectrum-sensing devices, though it did so over the protestations of broadcasters who argue those devices can interfere with their beautiful new DTV pictures
"There are people in the industry and at the FCC who have never seen the actual layout of what white space is available, where," said Spectrum Bridge co-founder Rick Rotondo. "You look at Orlando and there is not much going to be available. You look out in Steamboat Springs and there is a ton of it."
One of the backers of Spectrum Bridge is a technology development fund seeded by the FCC, according to Rotondo.
He said the site can be used by wireless Internet providers to figure out whether there is enough spectrum in a potential service area to make it economically viable. It could also be used by TV stations that want to check and see whether the FCC has gotten their coverage area right, according to Rotondo. The company gets its information from the FCC in a nightly update of all the commission's databases.
Spectrum Bridge has already pitched the site to the FCC, which is on the lookout for a database manager.
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