Room for Innovation

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, said it best where “we are primitive in the Internet.” By allowing more people to have access to the Internet and at better connection speeds, we will be increasing innovation possibilities. Major companies like Microsoft, Adaptrum, Motorola, and Philips have already submitted devices to be tested for white space. These prototypes are not ready for consumer use as of yet, and probably won’t be until the transition on February 17, 2009. The purpose of these devices is to show that other signals can be detected within the same spectrum without causing interference should white space be used for wireless broadband service. This means that if a concert is going on, such device will detect the spectrum that is being utilized by wireless microphones and move on to use the next spectrum.

Although, there are controversies of whether these devices actually passed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) test, even if they were to fail, there is still room for improvement. White Space can open the market to anyone who can come up with a product that will eliminate interference and detect other spectrums being used at the same time; from large corporations to the person sitting right next to you.

References:

Anderson, Nate. (August 2007). Microsoft: FCC tested broken white spaces device, neglected backup unit. Arstechnica.com. Retrieved on June 23, 2008 from http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070814-microsoft-fcc-used-broken-white-spaces-device-for-test-neglected-backup-unit.html?rel

New America Foundation. Driving Wireless Broadband and Innovation. Retrieved July 2, 2008 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEyaxxInCpw&feature=related

TedTalk. (February 2003). Jeff Bezos: After the gold rush, there’s innovation ahead. Ted.com. Retrieved on July 6, 2008 from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jeff_bezos_on_the_next_web_innovation.html

VIEWpoint (March 2008). Segment 1 on White Space Issues. Retrieved July 1, 2008 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NiqgUBUdXQ&feature=related