In recent years, the FCC (News - Alert), in an effort to make more spectrum available to broadcasters and telecommunications companies, have begun to grant licenses for some organizations to operate in the so called “white spaces,” which refers to frequencies allocated to a television broadcasting service but not used locally. (Think of tuning in a station on your car radio and then driving 150 miles away; you’d lose the signal and receive only static, but that space is still technically allocated for that’s station broadcasting purposes.)

In 2008, the FCC voted unanimously to allow the unlicensed use of white space despite strong objections from some broadcasters, who feared use of the white spaces would interfere with their operations.

At the recent IT Expo Miami show, TMCnet spoke with Barlow Keener (News - Alert) of media and communications law firm Keener Law Group. Keener noted that the nascent white space industry is ready for its primetime, particularly when it comes to WiMAX (News - Alert) and small cell wireless technology – a way that wireless providers are “filling in the blanks spots” in coverage in indoor areas and urban locations where cell towers are impractical.

“If you want to deliver to a mini small cell inside an urban area through trees and building, white spaces, because it’s in the TV spectrum, will shoot through trees, and you can send Internet to those small cells. That’s called backhaul,” said Keener.

Compared with other types of wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, the radio waves used by white space devices can travel larger distances and go through walls easier. This is because they use lower frequencies.

White spaces technology won’t be limited to small providers. Large wireless infrastructure companies such as American Tower (News - Alert) and Crown Castle are also using white space for their backhaul solutions as alternatives to their fiber connectivity.

“White space is becoming a worldwide wireless ecosystem,” said Keener, who notes that some of the next challenges include getting whitespace standards set. Another is the maintenance of databases for the whitespaces.

“Telcordia (News - Alert) and Spectrabridge provide databases for the white spaces,’ said Keener. “So each radio speaks to the database, and that database tells the radio to turn on or turn off because there is another use, like a TV channel, in this particular spectrum,” he added.

A nascent industry it may be, but white space is ready for its commercial close-up: several radio makers have whitespaces radio ready for market, and we will soon see white spaces networking equipment on the market.

To view the full interview, see the clip above.