Will the FCC approval on TV white space fast-track rural development in India ?

The FCC ruling brings another avenue of growth for the communications industry that is bogged down by Mobile data explosion.  Infoworld says that the 'Mobile data traffic is expected to increase by a factor of 12 by 2014 - to a mind-numbing 9.7 exabytes, or 9.7 million terabytes -- from what it was in 2008'. Freeing up of TV white spaces not only means reaching out to remote places, it also paves way to a plethora of new wireless devices.

I was thinking on terms of what it means to India and the emerging markets. The rural India has adopted BPO with a bang.  This meant women empowerment and growth for the poor strata. The caveat has been the lack of network coverage in remote areas. You might remember discussions around India’s Rs. 1500 laptops. But rural adoption necessities coverage and also cost-effective technologies that scale up and go beyond the limitations of wi-fi. That was like the missing piece of the puzzle. This ruling can be leveraged to bring in that missing piece!

 Do we have a share in this exciting space? The answer is a resounding yes! Bell labs, India has built a prototype box already. This has also received very positive reviews in multiple conferences and events. It could only be a matter of time for such initiatives to reach fruition.

TV White space protoype box by Bell labs, India

 Bell labs, India researchers working on this say that the issues surrounding this new technology like fragmented spectrum can be dealt with. They find this as the start of a new revolution.

The FCC ruling could mean a lot to the emerging markets in terms of technology adoption and empowerment. But the need of the hour is fleshing out this into mass products fast so that we could leverage opportunities and in the process change India. This is a great opportunity for emerging markets that we cannot afford to let go.