White space wireless broadband has the potential to deliver high-speed broadband to people living in remote rural areas, it has been claimed.

According to technology firm TTP, Wi-Fi services delivered using spare radio spectrum between the 470MHz and 790MHz frequencies can benefit 600,000 countryside households and businesses.

The company has urged the Cambridge TV White Spaces Consortium - which includes a number of partners such as Sky, BT and Virgin Media - to exploit the technology's potential.

TTP claimed that white space trials have already produced broadband speeds of 12Mb for rural users - far above the government's 2Mb minimum speed target.

Richard Walker, TTP's Head of Wireless, said hundreds of thousands of premises poorly served by wired ADSL could be efficiently connected using cheap hardware operating in unlicensed TV white space.

"Consumers will simply have to buy a second TV aerial along with a white space router similar in size and price to existing home routers, while we would expect charges to be similar to current ADSL costs," he stated.