Table of Contents
- Fueling the Fight for Net Neutrality
- Embracing Ranked-Choice Voting as a Pathway to Pluralism
- Measuring U.S. Drone Use and Misuse
- Fulfilling the Promise of Child Savings Accounts
- Linking the Individual Mandate and Social Responsibility
- Tracking Terrorism in the United States
- Early Education Doesn't End at Pre-K
- Making Higher Education Outcomes Transparent
- Redefining Care Policy
- Using TV "White Spaces" to Create Equitable Internet Access
- Investing in America's Future Thinkers
- Proposing the Public Option
- Creating a Public Interest Technology Sector
- Building a New Practice of Public Problem-Solving
- Expanding Access to High School-Age Youth for High-Quality Apprenticeship Opportunities
- Engaging North Korea
- A Universal 401(k) Plan
- Measuring the Internet for Everyone
- Rethinking Economic Policy
- Documenting the Long Wars
- Ranking Digital Rights
- Future Tense
- Using Fiction to Make Policy More…Realistic
- Pop-Up Magazine
- Developing an MA in Global Security
- Helping Communities Deploy Mesh Networks
- Partnering with Universities
Using TV "White Spaces" to Create Equitable Internet Access
Idea
New America’s Michael Calabrese saw that the transition to digital television would free up a valuable public resource: the empty broadcast TV channels known as “TV white spaces.” He initially proposed in 2002 that vacant channels in each market could be opened for unlicensed use, enabling “Super Wi-Fi” to narrow the digital divide in rural and other underserved areas.
Incubation
Through Congressional testimony, coalition building and policy research, Calabrese’s Wireless Future Program showed how vacant TV channels are uniquely suited to extend wireless broadband to rural and unserved areas. A New America pilot deployment at West Virginia University later showed how open, public access to vacant “beachfront spectrum” could facilitate more ubiquitous and low-cost wireless broadband connectivity in rural areas.
Impact
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously adopted the idea of opening unused public airwaves for “Super Wi-Fi” in 2010. The United Kingdom, South Korea and a half-dozen emerging market nations have adopted it since. Microsoft and Google funded pilot networks around the world, mostly for education. In 2017, Microsoft launched its Airband initiative with a goal of using TV white space networks to connect 2 million rural Americans who currently lack fast and affordable broadband by 2022.