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What Exactly Is Super Wi-Fi
By Bryan Young
Expert Author
Article Date: 2010-10-15
By now, I am sure that most of you have heard of the FCC's recent decision to allow so-called "Super Wi-Fi" to be broadcast over the airwaves. What exactly is this super technology and what does it mean for the everyday person?
Super Wi-fi is just what it sounds like, it's Wi-Fi on steroids. The common household wireless router can broadcast the internet through a small house as long as there aren't too many walls between the router and the connected device. This Super Wi-Fi will have the ability to be broadcast over miles, through walls and all. Last month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously decided that white space could be used for internet broadcasting. White space is the spectrum of waves between television channels. These are only available now that broadcasts are required to be fully digital. Before, when everything was analog, there was too much interference for this to be practical.
However, now that the use of white space for Super Wi-Fi has been approved, we need to know what this will entail for us, the huddled masses. The largest gains by far would be the ability to extend broadband internet to rural areas where running fiber networks are impractical. This would ensure that all Americans have access to the internet. For those of us in more developed areas, the gains run more along the lines of money-saving. Not only would there be increased competition in the broadband market to drive down prices, but the need for expensive cell phone data plans would no longer exist.
There is still a long road ahead as far as Super Wi-Fi is concerned. Regulations must be written, rules decided and voted on, not to mention the lobbying being done to try and reverse the FCC's decision, mostly from the users of wireless microphones which operate (albeit illegally) in the white spaces currently. We can only hope that the benefits of Super Wi-Fi will outweigh the naysayers and become available for public use here in the next few years.
About the Author:
Bryan Young is a staff writer for WebProNews.
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