Connecting Without barriers
Whizpace is the company that offers TVWS: TV White Space or commonly termed as Super Wi-Fi. The terms are interchangeably used quite often to throw some light on the technology it uses for its application. Whizpace is the world-leading company that provides TVWS for all communication and network and connectivity solutions, initiated in 2016. Whizpace has founded the application through several sectors where they could implement TVWS such as Smart Grid, Agriculture Technology, Industry 4.0, Rural Internet, Secured Private Network, Video Surveillance, Wi-Fi/3G/4G range extension and maritime communication.
A brand-new area of application is in the emerging world of Internet-Of-Things (IoT). TVWS is faster, supposedly clocked 10X than today’s speed test and in hindsight, is cheaper as well. Since it does not require a straight line of sight to function, TVWS can easily surmount a 10 kilometers range. Super Wi-Fi is simply the existing license-exempt technology Wi-Fi, but much better. Such tech and its equipment would be imagined to be pretty complex to deploy but actually on the contrary, it is easy for deployment in the various parts of the world.
In almost every part of the world, there are many TV broadcast channels that are unused. These bare channels (blocks of the spectrum) are known as ‘white spaces.’ Super Wi-Fi equipment employs on-the-fly geolocation to determine and check channel availability wherever applicable devices are located. Devices will determine their location and query a geolocation database. The devices are not allowed to transmit until they have successfully determined from the database which frequencies if any, they are able to transmit on their location. Then, the database will consider the TV white space channels, and at what power level it is permitted to operate on in its current location. This database will also have a list of all other protected TV stations and frequencies across the country, avoiding inference to TV broadcasts and wireless microphone signals. The system is able to adopt a real-time scanning feature that is on top of the geolocation database, allowing Tv white space to be implemented anywhere at any frequency band as long as the antenna frequency range is supported.
The immense benefits that TVWS offers over other types:
- Super Wi-Fi is capable of transmitting data over a longer distance such as 10 kilometers whereas Wi-Fi can reach only up to 100 meters at best.
- Super Wi-Fi does not require perfect Line-Of-Sight whereas it is a must for Wi-Fi over the long-distance transmission.
III. Super Wi-Fi has the capability to reduce overall expenditures through CAPEX and OPEX due to the advantages that it carries.
The estimated number of IoT is around 50 billion devices which are currently unconnected. There is an exponential increase in demand for wireless data connectivity to engage all the devices around the globe. The operators from all the world are predicting a ‘spectrum crunch’, which is an insufficiency of radio spectrum. To counter this, Whizpace has a brilliant plan to employ TVWS to negate the demand for connectivity by harnessing the underutilized spectrum in an opportunistic manner and using brainy technologies to enable better utilization of spectrum. They have started with the opportunistic use of the TV spectrum.
Whizpace came into existence as a spinoff from Singapore’s national research organization, A*STAR when senior management running White-Space Communications Department and Strategy Planning Office, Dr. Oh Ser Wah, Founder & CEO of Whizpace with a bright vision of a world where everyone and everything can be affordably connected for better lives. There are 3 billion people that are currently unconnected, Whizpace has shouldered the responsibility to timely address the huge opportunities in the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and smart city markets.
Whizpace endorsed two strategies to stay ahead of the competition. Firstly, they employ TVWS to replace cabling/trenching enabling the swift connectivity to the remote places while cutting down the cost significantly. Secondly, TVWS’s coverage allows IoT users to create their own network thus ousting the need for dependence on other telecom networks.
The company’s founding stone was laid on the past records of Dr. Oh Ser Wah as being one of the first persons to work with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He is currently the Chairman of Singapore Wireless Systems Standards besides sitting as a committee member for Singapore’s Infocomm Media Masterplan 2025, also was named as the Most Influential CEO of the Year 2018, Singapore by Corporate Vision Magazine. Dr. Oh Ser Wah has bagged prominent and prestigious awards such as IEEE N3XT Star Award, ASEAN Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award, Finalist of Singapore President Technology Award and OCBC-Business Time Emerging Enterprise Best Innovation Award. Regarded as the world leader, he also had Tech Pioneer Award from Suzhou, China to his name. With such a man at the helm of Whizpace, the world only needs to brace for the impacts of the revolution Dr. Oh Ser Wah would bring about.
He had built an organization with WHITE core values:
- Whiz – good at what you’re doing; and doing it fast
- Honesty – honest to colleagues, partners, customers; high integrity
- Innovation – never-stop innovating; add value to users
- Trust – be trustworthy, taking initiative; teamwork
- Empathy – empathize what’s happening surrounding us; put ourselves in their shoes
Dr. Oh Ser Wah refers to these very values when faced with a tough decision. He is always ready to sacrifice short-term pains for long-term benefits as the decisions have long term impact on the future of the company. The company operates on a simple hierarchy. The technical staff report to the CTO and the outward affairs and operation staff reports to the CEO.
TVWS a.k.a. Super Wi-Fi is fairly a new kid in the town with gigantic potential to change the working systems but has challenges to face due to lack of recognition which also meant for the company to encounter troubles on every other corner. Whizpace had to start small even though the company was a spin-off from the well-recognized standards of A*STAR, the world leader in TVWS. The commercial records told the different story forcing the company to baby step towards the glory. Whizpace then built the records with their early clients and took part in exhibitions and tech events to demonstrate their vision to the world. The efforts paid off. Soon, the company name was sailing in newspapers and news channels. The reports began to pop up and they gained publicity. After good marketing, the deals began to flow and so did the deployment of the products and services.
More the deals meant more man-power and a steady core team to handle the deployments. The significant budget was allotted to build the team which found its address in the adage, ‘if you need money, ask for advice; if you need advice, ask for money’. They are currently focused on fundraising so as to grow their team and escalate to new heights.
For More Details: https://www.whizpace.com/
