I usually like to learn about new things in the technology world and this past week we had a big one come to pass. This story went virtually unnoticed because of all the news surrounding the US presidential election. It appears that the FCC has voted to allow the space given up by analog television stations to be used for broadband Internet. As most of you know on February 17th 2009 all American television stations will stop broadcasting in analog leaving only digital signals on different frequencies. Once this transition takes place, these television stations will be required to give up their channel that is being used on to transmit analog signals. With the FCC allowing this band to be used for Internet transmissions, this will tremendously improve the capability of Americans to obtain wireless Internet virtually anywhere that currently receives a television station. I say this is way overdue as the Internet has become a way of life in the world. The United States ranks 26th in the world for having broadband Internet available to its citizens.
With the onslaught of digital television and other Internet Protocol television (IPTV) systems becoming widespread, there is a commercial market for more Internet. I think this is huge and I for one think it is about time to come up with a wireless standard for high power Internet transmissions. The current wifi, or 802.11a,b,g,n are all being used on the crowded 2.4 GHz band. I had to change out my wireless telephone to a 5.8 GHz band because it was completely knocking out my wifi. As you know, with our IRLP, and XBox 360 in the house, that becomes a very big issue. Coming up with other alternatives besides broadband over powerline (BPL) are very necessary if we are to compete with other countries. As you know, BPL was found to not be a viable option because it radiates off powerlines in the high frequency (HF) bands virtually wiping out all shortwave radio including ham radio. Again, I think this is very good news.
I will be very excited to see this come to pass in the United States as we have been stuck at DSL, and Cable Internet for nearly a decade. There are still people in our own country that actually use dialup. Now that is scary! I have not used dialup in more than ten years. Keep your eyes open to the new inventions coming up in the near future. It will be interesting to see how this new band is going to be implemented. I know I will be paying close attention. I will certainly keep you up to date as these things come available.