SPACE INVADERS

摘要

A major row is brewing in the US over the so-called 'white spaces' - empty channels left in the public airwaves to stop one station interfering with another. Digital broadcasts are much less susceptible to adjacent channel interference than analogue broadcasts, so as broadcasting goes digital there is an opportunity to use some of the guard spaces for non-broadcast applications, like wireless broadband. The White Spaces Coalition (which includes Intel, Microsoft, Google, and Philips) has been lobbying for permission to use the gaps for unlicensed portable devices. The US is now committed to shutting down analogue TV by February 17, 2009, three years earlier than the UK. So the US will be a world testbed.