Unabashed

First off, it’s amazing how many different news reporting services have picked up this article from Reuters and printed it, verbatim, without offering any original thoughts on the subject at all. I’ll try to add a few of my own, because this article excited me with possibilities.

Basically, white space spectrum is simply unused channels in the same frequency range as television. Television, as most people know, is switching completely to digital next year, so there’ll be even more spectrum available once that’s done. The jist of the article is that the FCC is about to free up that white space for use, and this is where it gets interesting. The use for which they’re clearing it is rural broadband and wireless devices, which could pave the way for a whole new generation of mobile techy goodies for gadget junkies like me. By the end of ‘09, we could be seeing HD programming on mobile devices. And not just in urbanized areas.

VHF (Very High Frequency) spectrum has traditionally been used by broadcast television because of its range, which means if you can receive a television signal with an antenna at your home, you’ll probably be able to get broadband at your home once this new tech is implemented. Same antenna (because it’s the same frequency), but hooked up to your wireless router rather than your television. And, if we’re able to make use of this broadband broadcast with mobile handheld devices, you’ll be able to go hiking the Appalachian Trail and watch high definition weather reports on your phone, without having to rely on sat coverage.

Think of your local television station, transmitting around 5 Kw. The tower is probably in the arena of one thousand to two thousand feet tall, which means you might be able to pick up that signal a hundred miles away from the tower if you’re using an external, high-gain antenna (that’s an estimate, I’m not doing proper math here). I’m not even sure if they’re planning on broadcasting broadband in the same way, but that’s kind of what it sounds like the intent is, and that makes me very excited.

Mobile devices with only an internal antenna won’t be able to transmit anywhere near that far, but receiving is a different matter. Which means, of course, that you will be able to read your email while you’re in coverage, but you won’t be able to send email. Just like with a cell phone–a cell tower works in duplex fashion, it receives and transmits. Sometimes engineers have to turn the power down on a site which could be received from a lot farther away because the phones we’re all using now are only half a watt (.6w, actually). So if a cell tower is broadcasting, say, 120w, your half-watt phone might receive the signal twenty miles from the site (depending on terrain, tower height, and numerous other factors). Which means you’ll be able to receive a phone call, but the call will fail if you try to answer it, because your puny half-watt phone can’t transmit strong enough to get the signal back to the tower. So, the engineers cut the transmit power back to 25w, giving the site less coverage, making customers angry who really have no right to be, because they’re the ones who wanted the cute tiny little phone in the first place. But I digress…

In an application like this, there shouldn’t be any cutback in power for the sake of duplex functionality. Just ramp up the power and let me receive what I can. There will be times when I’ll want to transmit but won’t be able to, sure, but with the Internet receiving is the most important thing. With broadcast HD programming, it’s the only thing.

In other words, get ready, because the Internet is about to get a whole lot more crowded.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: broadband, broadcast, device, devices, mobile, remote, rural, spectrum, urban, vhf, white space, white spaces, wireless

If you’re trying to subscribe to my RSS feed through Bloglines, I’m sorry, it doesn’t work. I don’t know why. You can subscribe through your browser, through email, and–guess what–you can subscribe using the Google Feed Reader. I’ve been sick of Bloglines anyway; even after I’ve read a post it’ll show up as new the next day. So, enough, I’m fed up, I’m switching to Google Reader.

written by Matt Mitchell

I like to sometimes browse through the archives of blogs that I like. Here’s a neat bit from Warren Ellis circa March of 2005:

Let’s assume you’ve got a website of some kind, a computer that does stuff without coal and a hand crank, and the sick wish to worm yourself into people’s brains. How many ways can you do that?

Record a short mp3 and you’re a ringtone. Take a picture and cut it down to around 150 pixels across by 200 tall and you’re a phone wallpaper. How simple is that? Anyone whose phone is equipped with a way of changing its screen’s appearance can carry you in their pocket. PayPal five US dollars a month to LibSyn and you’re a broadcaster, sending out audio and/or video to anyone who wants it. If it’s just audio, stream it off a MySpace page for free. You can be a t-shirt, a coffee cup, a visual brand across a bunch of objects. You can be a badge or a sticker. A photographic print, a magazine, a book, a pack of postcards. An instant messaging icon, an LJ icon or a message board avatar.

Right there: an image, a sound, a radio star, a video star, a brand, a slogan, art, thought, iconography.

If someone had a mind to, they could become their own internet-powered brand with some speed. Tons of people could do it. They could design themselves to infiltrate cellphones and iPods, all the shit we’re told to own, all the shit we want to own for the pleasure of it but which by design comes contentless.

written by Matt Mitchell

Google’s announced it’s new mobile search, a blessing for those of us who frequently surf the Web using mobile computing platforms, such as my Palm TX or my i870 mobile phone.

The premise is so simple, you’ve got to love it: when you do a search, for a bar, restaurant, etc., you get minimized results based on the information you might actually want rather than all those search results which you’d normally get surfing at a desktop or laptop. The intent is scintillating: exact results, and access to the data with the fewest clicks possible.

Using a search engine mobile has never really been an option until now; who wants to sift through all those irrelevant search results on a 1.5″ screen, or even a 3″ screen? But with this new product, Google’s given us a useful tool for today’s ‘Mobile E’ environment.

written by Matt Mitchell