For TV ‘White Spaces,' the Global Outlook Is Hopeful but Cautious

Opposition from incumbent spectrum license holders like 3G and 4G wireless service providers and TV broadcasters has either halted or greatly slowed the regulatory processes surrounding TV white spaces in scores of countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa, which in turn has discouraged manufacturers from building new white-spaces devices, chipsets, and infrastructure.

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission's coming auction of broadcast TV spectrum to mobile carriers has added another layer of complexity and uncertainty, with reverberations being felt not just in Silicon Valley but down the entire global supply chain. And yet, despite all this unsettledness, white spaces are starting to find a place in the spectrum policies of developed and emerging economies alike.

Slowly and methodically, regulators in a growing number of countries are laying the groundwork to leave at least some white space unlicensed -- and useable for broadband.