Cornwall to host ‘white space’ trials

Commercial trials of so-called “white space” technology in Cornwall are being prepared as the UK telecoms regulator presses for the exploitation of fallow parts of the broadcast spectrum for fast mobile services across Europe.

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, used a speech in Brussels to call for a coordinated European policy on using this technology, often called “white space” because it exploits the gaps in between spectrum for other services such as television. Richards outlined concerns about the mounting pressure on the finite licensed spectrum from the rapid proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices that use considerable amounts of bandwidth-hungry data.