On Monday, March 26, Carlson and Nuel launched what they claim is the first commercially available white space radio system--RuralConnect. It's the first product in a line co-created by the two companies. The system will provide users with up to 16 Mbps of bandwidth per 6 MHz TV channel. It's designed to work over long, non-line-of-sight paths.
RuralConnect is being shown at WISPA's (Wireless Internet Service Providers) ISPAmerica event taking place at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. this week.
Luke D'Arcy, VP of Marketing at Nuel, said, "The outstanding propagation characteristics of white space signals means that operators can to serve customers they cannot reach with existing wireless technology. The capacity available allows pioneering WISPs to offer all customers faster plans that beat ADSL based competition. And this is possible without investing in new tower sites, spectrum licenses or high priced network equipment, boosting profitable growth."
Jim Carlson, CEO of Carlson, added, "We are well-positioned to make the most of the TV white space opportunity. We have the regulatory experience, tactical partnerships, and pre-emptive technology to successfully deliver this market-disruptive product. RuralConnect is a proprietary combination of Carlson's hardware and Nuel's software, resulting in an affordable, high-performance system that is attracting the attention of investors globally."
Carlson's RuralConnect web page says, "With a feature set this complete, RuralConnect is an ideal choice for a wide variety of applications: broadband wireless Internet access, IP video surveillance, VoIP networks, remote monitoring of equipment and more."
The page clearly states that RuralConnect is "Currently available only under FCC-Approved Experimental License." It lists the two currently approved FCC white space database administrators, Spectrum Bridge and Telcordia. (See the article on Telcordia's approval elsewhere in this week's RF Report.)
