back to article Investors toss $5m to UK firm: Just keep making that White Space kit

Cambridge-based developer of White Space kit Neul has raised another $5m to keep it operational while hardware improves, and Ofcom gets round to making its devices legal. The money follows the $12.8m which Neul has been spending since June last year, and comes from various investors including Mistui & Co. The money should …

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  1. HMB

    Ofcom

    Setting the benchmark in bureaucratic ineffectiveness.

    Of course it's one redeeming event of the last few years has to be giving EE the go ahead for LTE. It's not perfect, but it's a start and will hopefully ensure the auction definitely does happen next year, instead of being put off till 2022 because Orange stole Vodafone's toys and made it cry.

    Come on Ofcom! Maybe you can do two bits of good work in a year!! Who knows!?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ofcom

      How about OFCOM doing a bit of good work, and not auctioning at all? The last frequency auction merely beggared the bidders, at the ultimate expense of users, and the money raised was frittered by government on who knows what.

      For those who want the spectrum auctioned, presumably you'll accept that the military, BBC and TV, emergency services, radio hams, ATC, even model aircraft flyers etc should all have to pay for their frequencies?

      The correct answer is to allocate to the existing operators, charging only the reasonable operating costs of OFCOM in doing so. Ensure appropriate access for MVNO's, include any necessary network expansion requirements if wider access to mobile 4/5G is required, job done.

    2. Tom 38

      Re: Ofcom

      Yes, we are about to sell off forever a chunk of shared spectrum to allow 4G operations. We only get one chance to sell this resource, so it must surely be in the best interests to get the best price possible from the operators.

      Instead, we allow one company to have a year long monopoly on 4G, in order to diminish the value of the spectrum that will eventually be sold off to this lucky companies competitors.

      Operators bleat about the cost of the spectrum auctions, but none of them seem to be doing too badly.

      1. Mage Silver badge

        Re: Ofcom

        The spectrum should be leased at nominal pepper corn rent and income made from taxing the Operators. Spectrum should NEVER be allocated on basis of max immediate revenue of auction, but the USE and value as infrastructure to the Nation.

        Management.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Ofcom

          Not so simple... if it were free the operators would grab and occupy the spectrum to avoid competitors getting it or use it inefficiently as it didn't cost anything/much and they make the same profit anyway.

          It needs to cost them (somehow) to prevent a land grab - like tax = 20% +1%*MHz held?

  2. TeeCee Gold badge

    COBR

    Well, it's well known that COBRA stands for "Cabinet Office Briefing Room A".

    Presumably COBR is therefore actually COBRTBA.

  3. Mage Silver badge
    Mushroom

    "White Space has massive potential,"

    To destroy the protected status that Broadcasts to the home have had for the last 90 years.

    It's a bonkers idea that is doomed to create inference. People will add big aerials, "after burners", patches to disable database look up etc.

    Also anything like this is a disaster in Europe until CE approvals are pro-actively policed and interference sources shut down Ofcom are already bad and Comreg are already useless at this.

    They can't even get noisy CFL lamps and wall warts right never maind "Digital Dividend" and mains Networking.

    1. HMB

      Re: "White Space has massive potential,"

      Well I guess we shouldn't have dug the channel tunnel because it's doomed to leak and we'll get immigrants through it huh?

      White space is an untapped natural resource, wasted space that could help boost the economy. You want to deny people better connectivity because you think the policing will be ineffective?

      So if you were leader would no one be able to buy knives?

      Let's go further, let's shift everyone on to IP TV and free to air satellite over the next 15 years then sell off all the old fashioned terrestrial radio broadcasting to get the best connectivity we can.

      Digital TV over the air is a frivolous waste of resources. It can easily be cheaply replaced by satellite anywhere in the country. Satellite latency doesn't affect TV, it cripples networking though.

  4. Pypes
    Megaphone

    Hold this whitespace nonsense

    OFCOM still have to address the issue of powerline networking wiping out WHOLE FUCKING BANDS.

    I wish they would stop sitting in the corner with their thumb up their collective arse giggle at the prospect of a fat spectrum auction paycheck and get around to doing the job they were created for, and that my taxes pay for them to do.

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