We are currently launching the first wireless broadband trial using TV white space in Tunisia and in North Africa. The test case will focus on offering wireless connectivity to urban and rural areas in an attempt to show that broadband can be offered over white spaces without interfering with licensed spectrum holders. Rolling out wireless broadband technology into the unoccupied radio waves used
as buffers between TV channels could enhance broadband access in rural and urban areas. The provision of wireless broadband internet to rural/urban areas is foreseen to be one of the key applications that will use TV white space spectrum. The limitations of wired ADSL and the high cost of installing optical fibre in remote locations make it imperative to find cost effective wireless solutions. TV white space spectrum is characterised by large amounts of geographically available spectrum with excellent propagation characteristics, offering long range and exceptional building pe*******on compared to the spectrum used by the plethora of short range commodity WiFi and Bluetooth equipment. TV white space spectrum is ideal for providing fixed broadband internet services to locations where the routing of cables or optical fibre is neither practical nor economic. White space networks will have also a key role in supporting these huge expected number of M2M connections to fulfil the vision of a truly ubiquitous wide area network i.e. the emergence of 'the Internet of Everything'. This expected WEcom TVWS technology trial will bring Tunisia to the cutting edge of innovation in terms of improving Internet connectivity, and is a very positive step towards bringing many more Tunisians online.
