First white space broadband deployment in Virginia

The nation's first wireless broadband network operating in unused TV channel "white spaces" is now live in an unlikely spot -- Patrick County, Virginia (population 20,000). Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA) chairs the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, and his office helped to arrange the trial rollout. The TDF Foundation built a small computer lab in Claudville back in September and turned to Spectrum Bridge, one of the companies it invests in, to set up a white spaces link to the center of town, where the signal would then be fed to traditional WiFi routers at the local school and the cafe. White spaces broadband has not been finalized by the FCC, however, so special permission was needed to do the trial project. Dell and Microsoft contributed equipment and software.