Carlson and Neul today announce plans to jointly develop and market a new white-space radio networking system aimed at bringing affordable broadband to millions around the world. This marks the beginning of a significant, global partnership between two established leaders in white-space technologies, according to a release.

The Neul/Carlson system will give broadband users access to more than 200MHz of high quality white-space radio spectrum. Volume shipments of the new system are planned before the end of the year, with samples and development equipment available before then, according to the company.

"Broadband is a global necessity in today's world, and we see this partnership as a leap forward for rural broadband worldwide," said James Carlson, chief executive of Carlson. "White space technology is especially effective in sparsely populated areas and rugged terrain, giving rural communities real-time access to the business opportunities and educational resources the Internet has to offer."

Carlson and Neul are committed to working closely with wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) and others to bring affordable broadband connectivity to under-served regions around the globe.

This technology uses "white spaces," or unused portions, of UHF spectrum for broadband. Its propagation characteristics enable UHF signal to travel through walls and other obstacles; line of sight is not needed to the subscriber's home. As a result WISPs using the new system can deliver faster, more reliable service to more customers with the same network infrastructure, driving additional revenue.

"Millions of people around the world do not currently have access to decent broadband at affordable prices," said Luke D'Arcy, Neul's vice president of marketing. "The technology Neul and Carlson are developing together gives Internet service providers the means to serve more customers with a quality broadband service, particularly in rural locations, through white space's long range, low cost and excellent propagation characteristics."

Carlson and Neul are combining their strengths to deliver a high-bandwidth product that offers unrivalled range and signal penetration. With approval from both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Ofcom (the UK's spectrum regulatory entity), the companies plan to introduce the product to the open market by year's end. White space technology is also applicable to a variety of other use cases, including in low-data-rate, even longer-range machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

Carlson was one of the first to implement successful TV white-space-based broadband systems under experimental license, most notably on Native American reservations.