First White Spaces access point gives grandma the Internet

20.04.2011
A Houston restaurant worker is the first user of a prototype wireless access point using low frequency signals in the so-called White Spaces between unused UHF digital TV signals.  

The access point was set up in the home of 48-year-old Leticia Aguirre, described as a working grandmother and homeowner, who had never had a reliable Internet connection before the White Spaces spectrum created one.

Widely but wrongly dubbed "Super Wi-Fi," these lower frequencies can reach further and penetrate buildings more easily than standard Wi-Fi radios, which implement the IEEE 802.11 specification. Wi-Fi runs in the unlicensed 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.

OPINION:

The prototype access point was developed by Rice University researchers with a grant from the National Science Foundation, in conjunction with a Houston non-profit group, Technology For All (TFA). The NSF wants to develop White Spaces radio capability as part of an open source project to bring wireless broadband affordably to under-served areas, according to Rice's Edward Knightly, a professor in electrical and computer engineering.

His research group worked with TFA in 2004 to launch a conventional Wi-Fi mesh network in Aguirre's East Houston neighborhood of Pecan Park. Aguirre was one of the first residents to agree to host an access point then, but living on the edge of the network, had never been able to get a good, reliable Wi-Fi signal.