Carlson and Nuel Offer Commercial White Space Radio System


On Monday, March 26, Carlson and Nuel launched what they claim is the first commercially available white space radio system--RuralConnect. It's the first product in a line co-created by the two companies. The system will provide users with up to 16 Mbps of bandwidth per 6 MHz TV channel. It's designed to work over long, non-line-of-sight paths.

RuralConnect is being shown at WISPA's (Wireless Internet Service Providers) ISPAmerica event taking place at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. this week.

Luke D'Arcy, VP of Marketing at Nuel, said, "The outstanding propagation characteristics of white space signals means that operators can to serve customers they cannot reach with existing wireless technology. The capacity available allows pioneering WISPs to offer all customers faster plans that beat ADSL based competition. And this is possible without investing in new tower sites, spectrum licenses or high priced network equipment, boosting profitable growth."

Jim Carlson, CEO of Carlson, added, "We are well-positioned to make the most of the TV white space opportunity. We have the regulatory experience, tactical partnerships, and pre-emptive technology to successfully deliver this market-disruptive product. RuralConnect is a proprietary combination of Carlson's hardware and Nuel's software, resulting in an affordable, high-performance system that is attracting the attention of investors globally."

Carlson's RuralConnect web page says, "With a feature set this complete, RuralConnect is an ideal choice for a wide variety of applications: broadband wireless Internet access, IP video surveillance, VoIP networks, remote monitoring of equipment and more."

The page clearly states that RuralConnect is "Currently available only under FCC-Approved Experimental License." It lists the two currently approved FCC white space database administrators, Spectrum Bridge and Telcordia. (See the article on Telcordia's approval elsewhere in this week's RF Report.)


Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.