FCC Approves White Space Frequencies - Google’s TV White Space Hospital Experiment in Ohio

If you have not heard the news today, the FCC has given the go ahead to use white spaces for Super Wi-Fi. Granted this is still operating with our current wireless standards, but this unused airspace is not tied to phone companies and has the ability to connect at greater distances and faster speeds.

Google already has a pilot program that was announced last week using white spaces for a hospital. All will be equipped with high speed wireless access over white spaces. The program will explore and demonstrate the many uses of white spaces in healthcare. This is working with a new smart grid network. This comes at a time when the hospital is just closing their OB Department.

They will be able to use Google Power Meter for efficiencies in utility use to lower bills as well as having the fast WiFi connection. The approval for the use of white spaces has been on the burner for quite a while now and other companies besides Google were pitching for the approval as well such as Microsoft and Cisco for a couple examples. BD

The small pilot program, announced a week before the FCC votes on final technical rules governing white spaces, will use the spectrum to deploy a broadband network. The program is the first of its kind for a hospital. First responder vehicles, the hospital’s ground and the health department will be equipped with high-speed wireless Internet access using the TV white space. According to a post on Google’s public policy blog, the search engine giant and Spectrum Bridge — a company its already partnered with in another white space-to-wireless broadband program — will use this demonstration project to show off the many uses for TV white space.