The FCC created rules last fall to make unused television channels operate a new long-range version of Wi-Fi that spreads through walls. This led to collaboration between wireless communications researchers at Rice University in Houston and nonprofit Technology for All (TFA) to provide wireless Internet access to underserved communities.
The TFA and Rice are deploying the networks for around 3,000 residents in East Houston, and the technology has the potential to be commonplace in cities and rural areas in the near future.
The first test of the “Super Wi-Fi” offering came by adding it to the home of 48 year-old Leticia Aguirre, who is currently hosting the nation’s first Super Wi-Fi hot spot from a home.
“I’ve wanted to have the Internet for a long time, but it’s very expensive” said Aguirre, a grandmother and homeowner, in an interview with Rice University.
According to Edward Knightly, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice, the university and the TFA are planning to extend the network in Aguirre’s neighborhood and have federal support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop the technology in an open-source way and use the right spectrum for the right users.
Knightly’s group from Rice joined the TFA to bring a free community Wi-Fi network to Houston’s Pecan Park area in 2004, with Aguirre as one of the first homeowners to use the service. The network known as TFA-Wireless, now brings in users in a three square mile region. The first network was used to test urban “multihop” wireless technology. Originally, Aguirre reported not being able to access the traditional Wi-Fi from her home, which was on the edge of the network, and almost asked the TFA to remove her antenna out of frustration.
Upon the FCC’s decision to incorporate Super Wi-Fi, the researchers from Rice used a grant from the NSF to add the service into the TFA-Wireless network.
With the new technology, Aguirre says she can use email and Skype, watch videos online and is learning more ways she can access the Internet to make her life easier. Any Wi-Fi device can access the new hot spot, using “dynamic spectrum access” to shift from the traditional Wi-Fi and unused UHF digital television channels.
“The fact that this is happening in a community broadband setting is significant as well, because this technology has a real potential to break down barriers and bring broadband to underserved urban and rural communities,” said Will Reed, president and CEO of the TFA, who has served on the FCC.
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