Boca Raton, FL, October 18, 2011 – Airspan Networks Inc., a leading provider of broadband wireless access networks, today announced the successful completion of trials for 4G broadband network operation in TV White Space spectrum in the United States, United Kingdom and Finland.

 A global trend is developing where countries are granting spectrum freed up by the migration from analog to digital television, for the purposes of commercial broadband connectivity. The spectrum referred to as “TV White Space” generally falls in the 450 to 800 MHz frequency range in large blocks. TV White Space is being made available for applications such as wireless broadband access, which is particularly well suited for rural broadband where TV transmissions occupy relatively low allocations of spectrum. In order to operate in this spectrum, base stations are generally required to register their location with a database and carefully regulate their emissions so as not to interfere with remaining TV transmissions.

 Broadband Service Providers and Utility Companies can greatly benefit from this emerging spectrum availability by utilizing it to deliver broadband in underserved areas, smart grid solutions and other wide area M2M applications in remote areas.

“TV White Space spectrum presents a great opportunity for delivering service to rural not-spots,” commented Peter Stanforth, CTO of Spectrum Bridge. “ISPs can now access spectrum that is similar to that used by cellular carriers without the very costly spectrum license fees”. Coupled with Airspan equipment, TV White Space enables a sustainable business case for ISPs delivering broadband in low density, underserved areas.”

Airspan has conducted successful white space trials in the UHF block of frequencies in U.S., UK and Finland with equipment that is ideal for the TV White Space spectrum due to some inherent features, including:

• Support for network topologies suited to delivering wireless coverage in areas a long distance from an internet POP
• Advanced Carrier Grade Quality of Service (QoS)
• MIMO and smart antenna technology optimized for delivering high bandwidth over long range non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments
• Power levels meet regulations set to protect TV transmission and sharing of bandwidth
• Integrated backhaul for extended long-range operation
• Rapidly deployable form factor, low installation cost and reduced operational expenses
• Low power consumption – enables self-sustaining remote site using solar/wind power
• Self-configuring, self-healing functionality
• Mature WiMAX technology with seamless migration to LTE

“Our TV White Space trials have been very successful,” added Paul Senior, Chief Technical Officer for Airspan. “We have reached Super-Fast Broadband data rates of >20 Mbps in a 7 MHz channel and our equipment operates in relay mode to maintain higher capacity over long distances.”

Airspan equipment operating in these low frequency bands enables carriers to provide high quality, long-range fixed broadband connections. The technology has the ability to penetrate obstacles such as trees and buildings. The field trials included extensive antenna testing to ensure the TV White Space solution optimizes MIMO operation.

Paul Senior added, “Most importantly for TV White Space operation, Airspan offers features not available on other technology platforms such as advanced QoS, providing application-sensitive data prioritization, as well as a truly coordinated system network where base stations are responsible for acquiring the assigned spectrum and only then make transmission slots available to relevant end-user devices.”