Chelmsford, MA (PRWEB) – The WhiteSpace Alliance (WSA) ®, a global industry organization enabling sharing of underutilized spectrum, today announced recipients of its 2015 “Pioneer” Award.

The award recognizes significant achievements by member companies and supporting organizations to develop and deploy broadband solutions using underutilized VHF/UHF TV Band spectrum (“whitespace”). Whitespace technology is ideal for use in rural and remote areas where wired infrastructure is not cost-effective to deploy, and vegetation makes line-of-sight wireless solutions unreliable.

“Introduction of new products and positive results from field deployments highlight the progress our members are making in delivering market-ready whitespace solutions,” said Dr. Apurva N. Mody, Chairman of the WhiteSpace Alliance. “Sharing these developments with government officials and other industry groups will help speed delivery of economical Internet access to underserved populations around the world.”

WSA recognized four organizations for their contributions this year:

• Saankhya Labs
  Saankhya Labs is commended for their pioneering work on implementing the first IEEE 802.22 Standards-based chipset to realize the vision of “Make in India”. Saankhya Labs has also developed Base Station (BS) and Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) based on the WSA Wi-FAR™ Specification. The module uses VHF/UHF TV Band spectrum to provide connectivity in wireless regional area networks. A single BS is expected to cover 300 sq. km and provide an aggregate throughput of 18 to 22 Mbps.
• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay at Mumbai
  IIT Bombay team was commended for their extraordinary contribution and pioneering work on proliferation of the WhiteSpaces to enable “Digital India” rural broadband connectivity. IIT Bombay conducted an extensive field trial using TV whitespace in several villages in the Palghar region of India. The trial equipment demonstrated bandwidth of 11Mbps over non-line of sight distance of more than seven kilometers.
• National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan
  NICT is commended for their pioneering work on implementing the first IEEE 802.22 prototype that is based on the WSA Wi-FAR™ specification. They are also commended for their pioneering work on implementing a wide variety of standards-based prototypes for WhiteSpaces. NICT recently announced their prototype standards-compliant 802.11af chipset, the first baseband integrated circuit for TV whitespace wireless local area networks.

The awards were presented at the recent WhiteSpace Alliance Global Summit in New Delhi, India.

WhiteSpace Alliance, developer of Wi-FAR™ and WSAConnect™ interoperability specifications, has a following of more than 200 major commercial, academic, government, and regulatory organizations around the world. WSA member organizations benefit from access to technical specifications that decrease development costs; expanded access to global markets, regulators, and government agencies; and ongoing marketing support at no additional cost. Consumers benefit from a multi-vendor, interoperable ecosystem that brings down the overall cost of broadband access. For more information on WhiteSpace Alliance, please visit www.WhiteSpaceAlliance.org.

About Saankhya Labs:

Saankhya Labs, a subsidiary of Tejas Networks, is an innovative leading-edge technology company with a breadth of wireless communication system solutions. Saankhya offers a wide range of communication products for 5G NR, Broadcast, and Satellite Communication applications. With over 100 international technology patents and unique ‘chipset-to-systems’ expertise, Saankhya’s solutions include award-winning SDR chipsets for communication, next-gen OpenRAN Solutions for 5G networks, multi-standard direct to mobile (D2M) broadcast, and Satcom solutions.

About WhiteSpace Alliance:

The mission of the Whitespace Alliance (www.whitespacealliance.org) is to promote the development, deployment, and use of standards-based products and services as a means of providing broadband capabilities via WhiteSpace spectrum. By promoting the use of standards, the Alliance will enable companies to provide broadband connectivity at reasonable cost. The WSA will also act as an enabler of the emerging white spaces ecosystem by helping to put in place interoperability, conformance, and compliance testing to make sure that our member stakeholders get the needed information & collaborations to succeed both in the marketplace and with regulatory requirements. Interoperability specifications will allow multiple vendors to enter the market and help to reduce the costs for the consumers. WhiteSpace Alliance promotes the use of IEEE, 3GPP, and IETF Standards for use in the WhiteSpaces.

Contact:
Bill Mello, White Space Alliance 1, +1 978.877.0051, bill.mello@whitespacealliance.org