12,000 (square) mile wifi!

IEEE has just announced a new Wireless standard 802.22 that can cover up to 12,000 square miles. The standard is actually for Wireless Regional Area Networks or WRAN which uses the white spaces left in the TV frequency spectrum.

This new wireless standard is expected to bring internet connectivity to large areas which are less densely populated that did not have coverage previously. The WRAN will be able to deliver up to 22 Mbps without interfering with existing TV broadcast stations.

The network will function with a series of base stations like current wireless networks, the customer will only need a small box installed in their house for internet access. It’s now only a matter of time that you will be able to pick up the same wireless network at work and at home. Check out the press release below for full details.

Follow link for full press release.

Not exactly as impressive as it sounds, since 12,000 sq miles means ~110 miles by ~110 miles or approximately 55 miles in each direction from the base station. That's far less amazing than 12,000 miles, but still 55 mile WiFi is pretty cool.

We are getting close to the day where we can have internet by our ISP anywhere we want by a reasonable price and with reasonable speed (3G internet sucks =P).

Now if they were just able to transfer electric current through the air we'd be golden.

Now if they were just able to transfer electric current through the air we'd be golden.

Tesla already did?

Tesla already did?

A way to do it that's actually practical for household things, most of those methods are inefficient, don't transfer enough power, are dangerous, are too expensive or require way too big systems to be practical.

The time difference between something being found as possible in lab and that same thing coming to common homes is enormous, some people still use dial-up internet, CRT monitors, landlines and don't have an email address.

Still already here.

It'll definitely help out those who can't get service because cable companies can't afford to send people out to the middle of no-where to lay cable. 55 mile radius is impressive for most towns. That'll cover alot even places that couldn't get access before-hand.

55 mile radius is impressive for most towns.

It'll be most impressive if they set up broadcasting towers at the edge of their current deployments instead of their home bases.
But in most cases, yeah, 55 miles directly outward from their base should still reach a whole lot of new territory.

Still has loads of practical problems to be solved, I'm still taking wire internet over wireless because of stability and better connection, distance makes quality fall off too quickly.

Yes, but you have that option. The key benefit of this is for people who don't, which (un)surprisingly outnumber the people who do.

22 Mbps to how many people?

My family owns a house on cape cod, out in the protected seashore area. There's so few people living there that there's no point in wiring internet, so we're stuck with dial up- which I can't even use because my laptop doesn't have an RJ11 port. So maaaaaybe now we'll be able to get internet out there, considering one of these can cover all of cape cod.

22 Mbps to how many people?

Per channel. So however many people each channel can support split 22 mb.
A lot of questions there still.

Interesting. It would be good in certain places, i think. I know in Maine there are so many places without service of any kind.

22 Mbps to how many people?

Exactly what I wondered about, since most of the spectrum is already used and bought by companies.

And 22 Mbps isn't that much, especially when you're thinking about the amount of bursts and collisions on that range (300 microsecond delay from just the speed of light.). If you have more than, say, 10 people on that network, you'll not have that much broadband for each of them.

Exactly what I wondered about, since most of the spectrum is already used and bought by companies.

And 22 Mbps isn't that much, especially when you're thinking about the amount of bursts and collisions on that range (300 microsecond delay from just the speed of light.). If you have more than, say, 10 people on that network, you'll not have that much broadband for each of them.

I think that they would be able to have quite a few different "channels," in the in-between, as well as above and below. Given that I have a channel 1500 or something on my TV, but I only have around 900 actual channels, there's a lot of space, especially in the higher regions.

Gooood, Goooooodddd. One step closer to Skynet >


That's pretty good for wifi o_o Could see it used in Cities as well that want to provide wireless all over the city (like SF)