back to article Cambridge White Space boffins cook up Weightless chips

UK White Space pioneer Neul has got its Weightless protocol into silicon, ready for devices which will then drain batteries as slowly as they'd leak energy when not in use. That's the promise of Weightless, a radio protocol designed to operate in White Space frequencies that are empty of local TV broadcasts. The idea is that …

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  1. jai
    Coat

    I thought this article was going to be about a joint venture between McCaines and WeightWatchers

  2. M Gale

    10km point to point?

    What, without a backbone tax or license fee in the way?

    In the UK?

    Madness.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 10km point to point?

      Just because the spectrum is "white space" doesn't mean devices using it won't be regulated by OFCOM|FCC|$LOCAL_GVMT_REG - they will still have to have a license to operate, you just won't have to do all the paperwork about where you are/what frequency you are using/how much power/how high/etc. you'll just have the license in the box, same as FRS/GMRS/CB and such.

      I'm in the industry forums, and everything that's been discussed in DySPAN is that there will be licensing and regulation.

  3. Kubla Cant
    Headmaster

    Bluetooth and Iceni

    I think Mr Bluetooth's name was Harald not "Herald".

    He lived from about 935 to 985. If the Iceni were contemporary with Harald Bluetooth, and were "all killed by the Romans", then the Romans must have made a special trip back to Britain about 500 years after they left, by which time there was no longer any such thing as the Roman Empire in the West. Why they should be so vindictive, I can't imagine.

    The fact is that nobody killed all the Iceni. They might have been displaced by the Anglo-Saxons and gone to Wales, though I think the view these days is that the incoming migrants merged with the existing populations.

  4. Mage Silver badge
    Mushroom

    White Space frequencies that are empty of local TV broadcasts

    Please qualify this claim, which has never been proven to work and has been demonstrated causing interference.

    Unless EVERY TV set/box is reporting in real time to a Database what it's using the so called "white space" Radio WILL clobber TV reception. Also users will misuse the kit with more power or manual channel selection by hacking database connection.

    It's the most ill conceived attack on broadcasting ever.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Flame

      Re: White Space frequencies that are empty of local TV broadcasts

      "It's the most ill conceived attack on broadcasting ever."

      I thought that was main wiring based networking, eg Homeplug.

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