Microsoft to test white-space spectrum for wireless

A group including Microsoft, the BBC, British Sky Broadcasting and BT (British Telecom) is going to trial a new type of Wi-Fi in UK this week, which uses the white space spectrum. The group intends to use the white spectrum to create "super Wi-Fi" networks to sate bandwidth-hungry smartphones.

"Spectrum is a finite natural resource. We can't make more and we must use it efficiently and wisely," Dan Reed, Microsoft's vice president of technology policy and strategy, told the newspaper. "The TV white spaces offer tremendous potential to extend the benefits of wireless connectivity to many more people, in more locations, through the creation of super Wi-Fi networks."

The frequencies within the 470MHz to 790MHz range will be used for the test – this is a spectrum that can travel long distances and penetrate through walls. Microsoft has already been testing a new technology that uses the unlicensed spectrum on its 500-acre Redmond, Wash., campus and it turns out that the network based on the white space spectrum can cover an area that is almost nine times as large as one that uses Wi-Fi and because it operates at a much lower frequency.

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