MOBILE services operator Globe Telecom Inc. has finished television white-space trial for wireless backhaul, a feat that will help the company maximize the use of available spectrum and subsequently improve its wireless-data services.
Globe Senior Vice President for Network Technologies Strategy Emmanuel Estrada said TV white space, which refers to the unused TV channels between the active ones in the very high frequency (VHF) and ultra high frequency (UHF) spectra, enables his company to reach far-flung communities that have no fiber backhaul.
“The TV white space provides us with another means to bridge the Digital Divide in remote rural areas, where traditional means of backhaul, such as fiber or multihop-microwave terrestrial backhaul does not make it economically viable for telecommunication providers to deploy broadband facilities,” he said.
The trials, he added, were in support of the company’s bid to maximize available spectrum given rapid increases in data consumption as it aims to improve the Internet experience of its customers.
They were undertaken in partnership with the Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology over the last eight months in several areas in the country, including Cebu and Bohol.
NuRAN Wireless Inc., a Canadian-based leading supplier of mobile and broadband wireless solutions, aided Globe in the excess.
Estrada said during the trials, NuRAN’s equipment generated up to 10 Megabits per second over distances of 7 kilometers and 12 km. With the achievement of this important milestone, NuRAN will begin rolling out units in 2016 for broadband public access.
TV white space is typically referred to as the “buffer” channels. In the past, these buffers were placed between active TV channels to protect broadcasting interference.
It has since been researched and proven that this unused spectrum can be used to provide broadband Internet access while operating harmoniously with surrounding TV channels.
Utilizing TV white space for propagation of Internet service is a relatively new technology, as TV broadcast began transitioning from analog to digital, which paved the way for the availability of more TV channels or frequencies that could be utilized for broadband use. NuRAN’s technology focuses on UHF bands from 470 megahertz (MHz) to 698 MHz.
Once in place, the technology is expected to provide an alternative wireless network that will provide data connectivity in far-flung areas in the Visayas and Mindanao.
“Increasing demand for wireless-data traffic and growing pressure to network capacity has spurred an interest to utilize these unallocated portions of the radio spectrum,” Estrada said.
The TV white space’s long range of reach means utilization of this frequency for broadband use would require less number of cell sites to provide coverage for a given geographic location compared with existing wireless technologies, he said.
This also means that the use of the TV white-space spectrum for propagation of broadband technologies is more cost efficient for telco providers.