The White Space Black Hole

In 2008, in the wake of the 700 MHz auction, Google held a conference call to reveal its plans for “Wi-Fi on steroids” -- a broadband wireless service to be delivered coast to coast via unlicensed white space devices, all in time for the 2009 Christmas holiday. I remember reading a blog comment around that time mocking AT&T and Verizon for “wasting” billions of dollars on licensed spectrum in the 700 MHz auction when troves of valuable unlicensed spectrum would soon be available for free.

In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission adopted white space rules that white space supporters argued set the stage for the next generation of wireless technologies to emerge. One reporter declared that “there is no stopping the white space gold rush that is about to begin.”

It’s now 2015. The licensed 700 MHz allocations that were sold in 2008 have been the bedrock for billions of dollars of investment in wireless networks that now form the catalyst for U.S. leadership in LTE wireless technologies. And hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers now enjoy 4G LTE wireless services as a result of those investments. On the white spaces front, an Internet search reveals only a scattering of small scale white spaces tests and deployments, with even less information available about the scope or success of those efforts.