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Rep. Rick Boucher |
Thursday, October 22, 2009
By AMANDA BUCK - Bulletin Staff Writer
A first-of-its-kind experiment to bring high-speed Internet access to rural areas got under way Wednesday in the small Patrick County community of Claudville.
Ninth District U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, announced during an online video-conference that “white space technology” is being used to bring high-speed Internet access to the community.
The video conference, which linked Boucher’s office in Washington with Trinity Christian School in Claudville, was broadcast using the new method, “so we know it’s working,” Boucher said.
“That signal that we saw on our screens (as we were) taking part today was the first signal to use white spaces in the United States,” Boucher said. He described white spaces as “the unused spectrum between television channels.”
The unused broadcast channels were left open when television transitioned from analog to digital, said Roger Hayden, a Claudville resident and chairman of the Patrick County broadband task force. Hayden also took part in Wednesday’s video conference.
Spectrum Bridge, a Florida-based wireless company, is providing the service through the first white space license granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Boucher said in a news release. The experimental license, which is good for 18 months, will allow the company “to demonstrate the cost effectiveness of using white space spectrum for last mile broadband delivery,” the release said.
“Last mile” refers to the idea that a broadband connection installed at a central point — in this case the Red Bank Ruritan builidng in Claudville — can extend a signal outward, eventually providing access to residential, business and nonprofit users in the area, Boucher said.
The connection at the Ruritan building, which was installed in July when a computer lab was opened there, provided the first broadband Internet access in Claudville, Boucher said in the release. It was funded by the Telecommunications Development Fund, a nonprofit group that “works to improve telecommunications services for deserving communities,” the release said.
“At my urging, the fund brought a connection to the Ruritan building in Claudville, and in that building Spectrum Bridge has installed a router to offer wireless broadband services over the last mile in the Claudville community,” Boucher stated.
Right now, there are three recipients of the wireless access: Trinity Christian School, the Claudville Café and the Blue Ridge Fish Hatchery. Boucher said he anticipates that others in the community will receive access as well during the 18-month experiment.
Spectrum Bridge is providing the equipment for each site at no charge, and Dell and Microsoft are donating equipment as well, Boucher said. The equipment will allow the school to install a distance-learning classroom using the white space service, the release said.
This is the first time in the nation that white space technology is being used to transmit high-speed Internet access, Boucher said. He called the method “very cost effective” and said it has a high bandwidth that can transmit 10 to 15 megabits per second, “which is faster than typical broadband wired connections that people have with DSL,” a service that typically transmits Internet access using telephone wires.
The white space method can carry more data and has full video capabilities, Boucher said. That could mean Claudville residents will have faster service through white spaces than many Martinsville residents have now, he said.
The technology has the potential to bring wireless Internet to the homes of many Americans, he indicated.
“This will be a major way that broadband is deployed across the U.S. in the coming years,” Boucher predicted.
Boucher said he chose Claudville as the demonstration site for several reasons, including the recent installation of broadband access in July and efforts there to expand that access.
Although the technology is being provided free of charge now, Boucher said that could change in the future.
He thanked Jonathan Large, who also participated in the video conference from Claudville, for testifying about the need for broadband in the area during a meeting of the House’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, which Boucher chairs. Large is the Dan River District representative on the Patrick County Board of Supervisors.
He also thanked Hayden and officials from Spectrum Bridge, Dell, Microsoft, the Telecommunications Development Fund and the FCC.
Hayden said he and others worked with Boucher for two months to make Wednesday’s event, which he said was “flawless,” possible.
That success is not just good news for Claudville, Hayden said.
“It’s exciting news for the world,” he said. “ ... We think this wireless technology will be the cutting-edge technology for broadband, and we think we’ve proven that today in Claudville.”
He said the wireless access available through white space technology is light years ahead of other wireless methods.
“This is like going from a telegraph to a telephone,” Hayden said. “It’s that important.”
Virginia’s 9th Congressional District includes Patrick County and the western part of Henry County. |
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