Comments on: GPhone to Utilize TV White Spaces?

By: Jonny

Jonny — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:06:45 +0000

So far nothing I've seen leads me to believe that talk of a Google phone is based on anything but unfounded rumors. Maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't seen anything besides a lot of chatter and anonymous sources. Granted, it's more than the usual amount of chatter, but I still remain skeptical, especially since we've heard these rumors before.

By: carig

carig — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:03:35 +0000

"people won't use this thing if the coverage isn't there"

completely agree, i think if they're gonna pull this off they need to sell it as a VOIP phone that works over the existing carriers' data networks and then be prepared to fight numerous legal battles to force the some of the carriers to allow the phone on their networks

By: Dave Haynie

Dave Haynie — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:47:45 +0000

They are in no way ready to start using the new whitespace rules. For those who don't know, the "white space" means TV channels that are defined, in parts of the 54-699MHz range, but are not occupied in your local area.

Yes, your device has to be location-aware. It has to know about assigned television channels, and not use those when in their coverage area. It also has to hit a server fairly regularly, to access new data about changes. After all, there's NOTHING more important than folks not having the slightest bit of interference with their OTA television. Well, aside from the fact ATSC chose 8VSB modulation, so it's hard to pull in anyway (but hey, 8VSB interferes much less with NTSC signals than COFDM... oh, wait, there are NO MORE NTSC signals, and yet, we're still stuck with 8VSB...). It also has to broadcast some kind of easily decoded beacon, identifying what it is, though that part of the rule is a little vague.

The signal requirements, today at least, are really difficult to meet. While each NTSC channel slot offers 6MHz of bandwith, in practice you'd need a much narrower signal, because the rules for interference are very strict. And when you're all done, you get to use what are essentially Wifi power levels, nothing more. There's some belief a new radio standard will be needed for to really use whitespace spectrum effectively. Since I work on digital radio, I played around with modified Wifi at 5MHz to see how close it could come... not very. Maybe LTE on a narrow band, but you'd still have to work in the location awareness and beacon and all. And yeah, you have to be location aware, pretty accurately, even indoors.

This doesn't even matter, anyway, since there are no whitespace radios creating a nation-wide network for a "G-Phone" to be rolled out into. Google's been a big investor in Clear (WiMax at 2500MHz... the same thing Sprint calls "our 4G network", also the same wireless network Comcast is talking about... it's operative in at least five cities now, though hardly covering them, at least if the performance in Philadelphia is any indication), so they have the basis for some kind of network being available. But it would of very limited appeal, at least until they have real coverage.

And that's only IF they pushed it as a replacement for a cellphone. If they're making an Android-based PDA, selling a different model... WiFi and WiMax where available, cheap all you can networking, and, oh-by-the-way, it does VoIP, too, maybe they'd have something.

Though I have my doubts. Maybe it's just how stupid that "artist's concept Google Phone" looks... tiny screen, all that wasted space... and it's running WinCE. Ouch!

By: Booby

Booby — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:38:00 +0000

This sounds like a pipe dream.

By: Lisandro

Lisandro — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:25:53 +0000

Read the link that Jeff above posted and doubt the GPhone no more Here is the link http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/clearwire-lau...

By: VicMatson

VicMatson — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:18:06 +0000

I put two and two together this morning @ post 19.
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1594376

By: thescarletnecklace

thescarletnecklace — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:25:59 +0000

I as well doubt the coming of a Gphone. So Google has some interest in these white spaces, how do we know that they are going to make a device to utilize it? Couldn't it just be for a version of Android?

By: Woodstock

Woodstock — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:05:03 +0000

Yes, I still doubt the coming of a Gphone.

By: Kevin G

Kevin G — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:53:12 +0000

That. Is. Sweet.

By: newspeak

newspeak — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:34:00 +0000

i'am not very confident in the reliability of the whole white space thing...one of the blogs on this said that the phone would need data and a gps fix to make this work....i hope they have this worked out instead of in some sort of perpetual beta state because people won't use this thing if the coverage isn't there no matter how free it is

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:33:42 +0000

A cellular network transmitting at those white space frequencies needs to be built first. A more likely network would be Sprint/Clearwire. Google is a large investor in Clearwire ($500mil). Clearwire is building out the nation's first 4G network. This network currently covers 120 million people providing wireless broadband speeds up to 10 Mbps. http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/clearwire-lau...