Increasing Broadband Capacity by Repurposing TV Frequencies

Singapore is a hot spot for mobile activity with more than a million devices on daily reliable broadband service. The growth of data traffic in the nation has been rapid, and the result has been a strain on the current infrastructure. Because of this need, creative solutions have been devised to eek out every bit of broadband capability.

Some frequencies set aside for television broadcasting are unused in certain areas. These unused frequencies are referred to as white space, which are now a potential bandwidth source for inexpensive wireless service. New world-changing technology is being developed to tap into this source of broadband.

In the spring of last year a group was formed to oversee the project of repurposing these unused frequencies to support the need for mobile device data bandwidth. The tech was pioneered as far back as 2006, but has really only become viable now that television broadcasting has gone digital and the additional frequencies are no longer used for licensed stations.

Researchers are already hard at work on the next generation of tech for this field which promises to provide low cost Internet for mobile use. Since mobile device usage will not decline in Singapore and is, in fact, expected to continue to increase, it only makes sense to continue pursuing these alternate means of providing Internet service.

The team is preparing marketing campaigns to make known the importance of this TV frequency-repurposing technology. They are hoping that awareness will result in greater promotion of this technology, which is really being pioneered in Singapore but would be useful the world over as even developing nations are seeing an increase in mobile devices.