UK to use 'white space' technology to create connected highway

The UK’s telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, has announced the organizations taking part in Europe’s first major pilot of an innovative new wireless technology. The UK will be among the first countries to road test ‘white space’ technology, which could help support the next wave of wireless innovation. Over the next six months, around 20 public and private organizations will be participating in Ofcom’s pilot by trialing a variety of applications. Among the projects is a scheme to develop the A14 (pictured) into the country’s first internet-connected road.
Being carried out as a joint project between British Telecom (BT), the Department for Transport (DfT) and Cambridge-based start-up Neul, the scheme involves the deployment of a network of sensors along an 80km (50 mile) stretch of the A14, which would create a ‘smart road’ capable of gathering traffic data and transmitting it to cell phones. In addition, the Highways Agency (HA) is planning to invest about £1.5bn (US$2.4bn) to improve the A14, which would be recovered by tolls. As part of the project, BT would assist in designing the toll system and the road enhancements, which would involve gathering data on car drivers before moving on to collect information on heavy goods vehicles. The gathered information would be retransmitted to a database, which would then be accessed by the DfT.




Capable of delivering signals over the ‘white spaces’ between TV channels rather than cell phone networks, the new technology is also anticipated to enable government systems to automatically manage vehicle speeds. Ofcom, which had recently approved the project as part of its new draft on usage of the communication spectrum, has already visualized how the technology could be used in traffic systems. The regulator said that machine-to-machine (M2M) sensors in cars and on the roads would monitor the build-up of congestion and send the information wirelessly to a central traffic control system, which automatically imposes variable speed limits that smooth the flow of traffic. Ofcom cited other applications for the technology that included intelligent parking guidance in town centers.