President of the DSA, Kalpak Gude, said: “The DSA is always looking for organisations who share our vision, so I’m thrilled to welcome RADWIN, Federated Wireless and Saankhya Labs to the Alliance.”

“These three organisations are all dedicated to implementing alternative ways to enable service providers to reach remote customers all over the world. It’s important to remember that this is a global issue that affects millions of people, from the U.S to Mozambique to India.”

RADWIN have joined the DSA shortly after submitting a ‘Petition for Rulemaking’ to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It asks that the FCC change its rules to allow point-to-multipoint devices in the U-NII-1 and U-NII-3 bands, that use sequential multiple directional beam technology to operate with the same effective isotropic radiated power as point-to-point transmitters in those bands.

“The DSA supported this filing as the requested rule change could permit service providers to reach more remote customers from the same base station site,” explained Gude. “This therefore reduces the cost of deployment and improves the ability of service providers to reach areas that lack high Internet connectivity speeds.

Saankhya Labs is an industry leader in software defined radios (SDR), which have been adopted and installed by Wireless Internet Service Providers in the U.S, Singapore, India and the Philippines. The SDRs have achieved demonstrated broadband speeds of 10 Mbps over a distance exceeding 10km without line of sight requirements.

Gude added that Saankhya Labs’ SDR chips powers a system which can use White Space to provide internet to households in rural India that are currently unconnected.

“The DSA has long championed TV White Space (TVWS) technology as a method to connect those in underserved areas. Only this year, we released the publication of the DSA’s new model rules for TVWS technology,” he said. “Whether it is India, or Africa, or anywhere it is possible, TVWS is a great solution which can be utilised in order to increase the amount of available wireless bandwidth and reduce its cost.

The DSA is advocating for more efficient spectrum utilisation. That is the key to providing millions of people around the world with digital access.”

Gude states that the legal restrictions and cost of deploying new technologies are not the only limiting factors, the installation and training of certified professional installers of these technologies has also got to be addressed.

“This is something that Federated Wireless really focus on. It recently submitted its proposal for Initial Commercial Deployment on the Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) spectrum band to the FCC and has also introduced a new training programme for certified professional installers of CBRS devices,” he said.

“RADWIN, Saankhya Labs and Federated Wireless are three important organisations who are doing incredible things to close the digital divide that exists in all corners of the world,” concluded Gude.

“This is not a regional or even a country-specific issue, it is a global situation that needs to be addressed collectively. Regulations need to be changed to allow spectrum utilisation to take place. Broadband has become a utility, it’s crucial for the economic and social growth of a country.

“As we approach 2019, it is simply unacceptable that so many people in the world are unconnected. I’m looking forward to the great work that the DSA, as a whole, will be doing over the next few months to help to close the digital divide.”

For further information about the DSA, please visit www.dynamicspectrumalliance.org/.

Companies interested in joining the DSA should visit the membership page, which provides a membership level breakdown and further detail on how to become a member.