5 Reasons Super Wi-Fi Might Not Be So Super

We brought you the good. It's time for the bad. Two weeks ago the Federal Communications Commission approved the opening of the "white spaces"—unused frequencies between the TV channels that became available when TV converted to digital. There's certainly cause to be excited: This could lead to "super wi-fi," or "wi-fi on steroids." The new range is in a lower frequency than current wi-fi, which could allow it to penetrate walls and travel longer distances than our current networks, and it can be used without a license. But there are also plenty of challenges that could keep super wi-fi from being super, at least in the short run. 1. It'll be clogged up in the city I spoke this afternoon to Mubaraq Mishra from UC-Berkeley, who studies all kinds of angles about how the white spaces will be used. The first problem, he says, is that while these newly opened areas could greatly improve Internet speeds in rural areas, people packed into cities won't see as much benefit. Mishra's analysis of white space availability versus population density shows the Internet speed difference clearly. There are relatively few people scattered across Nebraska, and so relatively few TV channels, which means less bandwidth to which TV signals possess priority access. But in New York there are lots of people and lots of TV channels, meaning there will be high demand for the few white spaces available. "The raw availability will just be a lot lower in Manhattan," Mishra says. 2. How far can we roam? At present, Mishra says, you might have a national cellular plan that takes advantage of the proprietary swath of bandwidth that cell carriers use. But what if you tried to use the white spaces for a mobile service? There's one big problem to surmount: "If it's a mobile service, you don't know what's going to be available as you move around," Mishra says. "Every area is going to have a different set of frequencies." So to go mobile, you'd have to be able to find out what's available and shift there. 3. We don't know how to use it yet "We don't know what the killer app is" yet, Mishra says. The big tech companies put their weight behind opening the white spaces, are are working on pilot projects on the community level. But, he says, device makers aren't diving in quite yet. Unlicensed white spaces have all the hyped potential, but the big question is what they can support economically. Mishra expects baby steps. He sees wireless providers making the first foray, using the white spaces as overflow bandwidth when their normal networks experience too much load. Cell providers could test out the same kind of overflow strategy to get a toe in. Of course, a big question mark is also an open door to invention: