India is known as a land of villages. As many as 6,38,000 villages are in India and they have minimum facilities of human settlement and survival. Technology is still a new word for them and they have no access of the existing technology. Most of the people in the rural areas are now aware of the mobile phones however smart phones are still a bewildering device for them as they are not exposed to the wonders the small device can deliver. Narendra Modi’s new project of Digital India is also taking a spree of progress. One of the projects’ motives is to connect the villages of India by broadband services. Many huge companies are taking part in providing the broadband services by promoting new technology.
How will broadband services be made possible to the masses? The technology is known as the white space. White spaces are the frequencies allocated to a broadcasting service which are now not in use. A couple of years ago before digital transmission of television, television worked on analog transmission. Analog transmission required more gap between different channels so that it doesn’t interfere with the adjacent channel. This increased gap resulted in more white spaces. Because of digitalization of television the gaps between two channels are minimised which made the frequency to free up and the vacant bandwidth can be used for broadband usage. The frequency of 50 to 700 MHz has been freed up as a result.
Google and Microsoft are chasing the white space networks so that internet could be made available to the hapless and needy. Spectrum management is an area all the network companies should work on to clear up all the unnecessary bandwidth and efficiently use the same. Tests are still in course to find out the reliability and performance of the internet services through white space technology. Some of the rural areas in USA like Thurman have already started using white space technology for broadband services. West Virginia University is the first campus to utilize the White Space technology in its entire campus.
The advantages of using this technology will be – Broadband will be available to everyone in rural areas, schools situated in villages will have internet access and E-learning can be introduced which will improve the standard of education. People will be up-to-date with the ongoing technology and also have information about the future technology. The white space technology can be used upto 10 km range which can pass through vegetation, buildings and other obstacles unlike wireless which has some limitations. Powering the white space stations will be done through solar panels which will be alternative.
60% of the world’s population doesn’t have access to the internet which means the opportunities of life, health care and employment are not been cherished by them. So if everything is in place, then within the next decade when you visit your grandparents and relatives in your villages you might be able to see a small WiFi box along with a computer or a mobile phone that would be able to connect to the internet. Or you may be able to Skype call with your relatives in your villages which might bring happiness to your old and loved ones.
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