Scientists have created a system that allows data to be sent wirelessly using live TV broadcasts, which they say could expand the reach of “super Wi-Fi” networks in our cities.

Researchers from Rice University, US, have created a device that is able utilise the underused Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spectrum to transfer data.

This could lead to the development of long distance Wi-Fi networks that are able to be used across large urban areas.

As the UHF spectrum is able to carry signal over long distances, without easily being blocked by walls or trees, it is ideal to provide internet access, the researchers say. The newly published paper the says they can “re-purpose” the spectrum even when it is “within the TV service area”.

The system, WiFi in Active TV Channels, WATCH, allows a secondary Wi-Fi transmission and exploits the fact that “few households are receiving UHF-band TV programming in a given channel, time, and location”.

“Due to the popularity of cable, satellite and Internet TV, the UHF spectrum is one of the most underutilized portions of the wireless spectrum in the United States,” said the University’s Edward Knightly.

“That’s a bitter irony because the demand for mobile data services is expected to grow tenfold in the next five years, and the UHF band is perfectly suited for wireless data.”

It’s not the first proposed incorporation of Wi-Fi and television technology. Last year scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in Germany, urged governments to turn old TV frequencies into free “super Wi-Fi”.

The suggested system by the German researchers would have utilised old TV frequencies around the world which are being made available thanks to a switch from analogue to completely digital transmissions.

However, the researchers from Rice University say that the “white space” – that allows channels that are not being used to be re-purposed – varies not only in different cities, but also across city suburbs.

“Unfortunately, in the most densely populated areas of the country, where the need for additional wireless data services is the greatest, the amount of available white space is extremely limited,” Knightly said.

“In our most recent tests in Houston, one channel is open in parts of the city and none are available in others. This is fairly typical of a large US urban area.”

The scientists paper WATCH: WiFi in Active TV Channels can be found here.

Featured image courtesy of Jeff Fitlow/Rice University