Piemonte is experiencing the first Italian research panel on white spaces in these days.The trial is one of the first in Europe. It is meant to exploit the so called “white spaces”- the unused television spectrum left over or vacated by TV broadcasters through the transition from analog to digital TV- to provide wireless internet broadband in high digital-divide areas. In Piemonte, this is happening in the LanzoValley, an alpine area located in northern part of the region and can be significant for the whole region, that has an high percentage of territory covered by Alps.As a matter of fact, the research panel opens the future to a new living lab, experiencing and testing a further way to reduce digital divide and ensure public services to local population.

The experimentation opens also business perspective for internal market, while waiting that EU and Italian regulation will authorise the use of TV frequencies for different uses.

 

EU Commission memo