White space startup Neul has released what it hails as the world’s first transceiver chip to make use of white space spectrum. The chip, called Iceni, will be used for machine-to-machine (M2M) connections as well as consumer wireless broadband applications.

It is capable of providing long range wireless, non-line-of-sight connectivity across the entire UHF TV white space spectrum; from 470MHz to 790MHz.

Iceni uses white space radio to access UHF spectrum that has become available by the transition of television from analogue to digital broadcasting.  The firm said that by utilising license-exempt spectrum, Neul’s technology reduces the costs associated with running a communications network.

The network has been specifically designed to be data only, in order to support the growth of wireless data, including the expected billions of M2M connections.

“The M2M space is growing tremendously in a number of markets including oil and gas, utilities, automation and more,” said James Collier, founder and CEO of Neul.

“When we looked at existing solutions and compared them to the promise of white space, we uncovered an opportunity to help build smart infrastructure and applications at huge cost savings, without sacrificing bandwidth or reliability. The Iceni chip allows us to connect to devices that were previously unreachable.”

Collier added that this opens up new opportunities for connectivity in healthcare, transport, education and heavy industry.

Neul has white space networks on four continents and continues to deploy specific white space infrastructure around the world.