SUNNYVALE, CALIF. – Carlson Wireless Technologies announced that the Federal Communications Commission certified the company’s RuralConnect TV white space radio system for use with the Spectrum Bridge TV white spaces database. This certification brings to market Carlson’s long-distance, non-line-of-site, fixed-wireless broadband system.
Designed using flexible software-defined architecture and dynamic spectrum sharing, RuralConnect is authorized to transmit over “white spaces” in the UHF TV band (470-698 MHz), the unused frequencies between licensed television broadcasters opened by the FCC in 2010 for unlicensed public use.
“FCC certification enables us to offer this technology domestically,” said Jim Carlson, CEO of CWT. “And because of the FCC’s stature worldwide, it also gives a boost to global efforts to adopt TVWS technology. Providing connectivity to underserved populations worldwide is more than an interest to us. It’s our corporate mission.”
Carlson said RuralConnect is “rapidly deployable and transmits at distances exceeding cellular and Wi-Fi.”
RuralConnect has operated for the last three years in more than 58 trial deployments both domestically and internationally, including a successful trial with Google and others in 2013 with schools in Cape Town, South Africa. These trials have played a role in demonstrating to both regulators and potential users the ability of TVWS technology to provide high-speed data across rugged terrain.
“Carlson’s RuralConnect is our radio of choice for challenging rural deployments,” said Ken Garnett, chief technology officer of Cal.net, a California wireless ISP, which conducted one of the largest commercially feasible TVWS experimental U.S. trials in 2013, according to Carlson. “By successfully penetrating dense forests and skirting terrain obstructions where no other wireless technology is adequate, RuralConnect allows us to dramatically increase the success rate of our installations.”
RuralConnect uses cognitive radio technology in collaboration with spectrum sharing databases to provide high-speed connectivity worldwide. This FCC approval authorizes use with the Spectrum Bridge database in the U.S.
In 2014, CWT will seek FCC approval for use of RuralConnect with other approved databases by Google and iconectiv.
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