Almost three billion people are online - but four billion remain without access, a failure that drives much political and economic frustration. TV White Spaces—the unused spectrum between TV channels—have the potential to bring wireless broadband access to underserved and rural areas. These low frequency signals can travel long distances and fill a need in places where telecommunications infrastructure is lacking.
Google, joined by a group of partners, (
CSIR Meraka Institute ,
TENET ,
e-Schools Network ,
WAPA , and
Carlson Wireless ), wanted to help make this potential a reality. In March 2013, the
group launched a six-month trial using White Spaces to bring broadband Internet access to 10 schools in Cape Town, South Africa. The goal of the trial was to show that White Spaces could be used to deliver broadband Internet without interfering with TV broadcast.
After six months, we can report some good news: the trial has been a success. The participating schools, which previously had slow or unreliable Internet connections, experienced high-speed broadband access for the first time. Teachers were able to use videos in their lesson plans, make Skype calls to other schools, update school websites, and send regular email updates to parents. Students could use educational videos for research. Because the service was better and faster, teachers and learners used the web to enrich the classroom experience.
At the same time, multiple sources confirmed that there was no interference with TV broadcast. Trial partner Meraka Institute performed frequent scientific studies to measure any potential interference over the six-month period. We also provided tools for people to report any interference experience while watching TV. The
final results of the test have been published for those who wish to take a deeper dive on the trial's outcomes.
ICASA, South Africa’s communication regulator, plans to use the trial outcomes as inputs into the White Spaces regulatory process. This is a big step to bringing this technology to more of South Africa. We hope the results can be useful in encouraging others to consider White Spaces to help bring the power of the Internet to more people in more parts of the world.
Posted by Fortune Sibanda, Policy Manager, Google South Africa
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