Chapter 4 - TV White Space Developments in the European Union

Abstract

TV White Spaces (TVWS) emerged in the USA as an opportunistic way of using TV broadcast frequencies where the unused frequencies left by frequency reuse by broadcast towers (known as white spaces) allowed emission of radio signals by lower power devices. In Europe, Ofcom in the United Kingdom adopted this concept in the latter part of the previous decade as one way of enhancing flexible use of spectrum. Ofcom proposed a number of different changes to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule making, and after a round of consultations and a 12-month pilot, enacted new regulations legalising access of TVWS devices on UHF bands in 2015. In continental Europe, for reasons such as the difficulty in identifying the existing unlicensed PMSE use and general concerns regarding the novelty of opportunistic access, TVWS regulation has not advanced to the extent it has in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the technique of geolocation databases was adopted from TVWS and is being deployed in other methods of shared use of spectrum. One key example in Europe is Licensed Shared Access on the 2300–2400 MHz band. Standardisation in Europe takes place under the aegis of the European Telecommunications Institute (ETSI) which has developed both TVWS radio standards (in ETSI BRAN) and geolocation database standards (in ETSI RRS) under the Reconfigurable Radio Systems mandate issued by the European Commission.