Connecting Cape Town: Inside SA's TV White Spaces Experiment

Network problem solving and tweaks
Post Reply
User avatar
Stuart
Lead Forum Administrator
Posts: 38503
Joined: 19 May 2005, 02:00
Location: Home

Connecting Cape Town: Inside SA's TV White Spaces Experiment

Post by Stuart »

In the whole of Africa, just 15.6 percent of residents are connected to the internet, which is under half of the world average. It's also home to vast, inhospitable landscapes that are economically inviable to crisscross with fiber. All of that being said, nearly a sixth of the globe's population resides on the continent, representing a monumental opportunity for something -- anything -- to connect the next billion people. As it turns out, there are actions presently ongoing to make a significant mark in the course of history. Google, Microsoft, Carlson Wireless, Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa (TENET) and a host of other powerful entities are collaborating to bring high-speed internet to an underserved continent via TV white spaces -- a low-cost, highly adaptable technology that's poised to explode. For now, Cape Town, South Africa, is acting as a proving ground for what will eventually be a far larger experiment. The core goal is actually quite simple: to beam hope to a disconnected society, with unused bands between TV channels acting as the medium.

Read more
Image
StarBound
Registered Pervert
Posts: 6879
Joined: 30 Jul 2004, 02:00
Processor: Intel i7 4790k
Motherboard: MSI Z97 Gaming 7
Graphics card: MSI GTX780Ti Gaming
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 1866mhz 16GB
Location: The Greater Unknown
Contact:

Re: Connecting Cape Town: Inside SA's TV White Spaces Experi

Post by StarBound »

Will see what happens with unencrypted data. Cable is still the best way of getting communication across imo.
My Steam Screenshots

I lived the dream ...then my PC died.
User avatar
hamin_aus
Forum Moderator
Posts: 18363
Joined: 28 Aug 2003, 02:00
Processor: Intel i7 3770K
Motherboard: GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
Graphics card: Galax GTX1080
Memory: 32GB G.Skill Ripjaws
Location: Where beer does flow and men chunder
Contact:

Re: Connecting Cape Town: Inside SA's TV White Spaces Experi

Post by hamin_aus »

Stupid idea is stupid.

TV is great for broadcasting a few streams of information to a wide audience, but those people can only act as receivers, the band is too wide for every receiver to firstly receive its own unique data, and secondly to send data back up the line.

Anyone remember Siyanda? You could receive data pretty quickly (by mid 90's standards) but you needed a dial-up modem to send data back upstream.
Similar hurdles to overcome here.

At best white-space could be used to broadcast data to people en mass, but it will not even remotely resemble the traditional internet we know.
Image
Post Reply