FCC Green Lights Use of White Space

While many organizations aren’t keen on the idea, the FCC finally approved the usage of unlicensed frequencies known as "white spaces."

According to this article at The New York Times, the FCC hopes that allowing access to this radio spectrum will lead to low-cost, high speed Internet access and new wireless devices. However a large coalition of protesters fought to persuade the final decision before the FCC cast its 5-to-0 vote, worried that accessing the white spaces might interfere with their own transmissions including television signals and wireless microphones. FCC Commissioners disagreed, saying that enough testing was done to prove that interference would not be an issue.

But the protesting coalition - broadcasters, sports franchises, Broadway theater producers and more - argue that more testing needs to be done. “We are deeply disappointed with the F.C.C. decision that could silence Broadway productions and those at other venues around the country,” said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of the Broadway League, a trade group representing the New York theater industry. His concern is that new devices utilizing the white spaces will interfere with wireless microphones on and off stage; these devices use the same white space airwaves.

Bruce Mehlman, executive director of the Technology CEO Council, thinks differently. "(Broadcasters) were mentally reserving the right to use the spectrum for their own profit," he told USAToday. Mehlman represents technology giants such as Intel and IBM.

The new interest in utilizing white space stems from the government’s decision to move television broadcasts from analog to digital; this process will actually free up the debated space. According to the FCC, digital signals are less prone to interference, and while recent tests did reveal that there will be potential interference on frequencies used by broadcasters and other organizations, the FCC feels confident that the problems could be compromised by "tight regulation of new devices" that use the white space spectrum. The FCC foresees that these devices are expected to hit the market in 12 to 18 months.

The FCC has bigger plans for the white space however, hoping that the new-found frontier will lead to a new generation of devices that will offer Internet access that could be more reliable than Wi-Fi, especially so since white space signals can penetrate walls. Other technology companies have raised brows at the possibility including Microsoft, Google, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola. "The F.C.C. has taken a significant step to usher in a new era of technology allowing for major investments in innovative wireless broadband,” said Motorola’s president and co-chief executive Greg Brown.

Even Google’s co-founder Larry Page sings praises of the FCC’s decision, saying that the new spectrum will give the public better and faster Internet connections. The white space spectrum has remained dormant for over fifty years, spanning the six of six television channels in some markets, deemed as wasted air space until now. With television broadcasters switching over to digital in February 2009, more space should become available. It’s no surprise that technology companies look as if they’re doing the pee-pee- dance.

"I’ve always thought that there are a lot of really incredible things that engineers and entrepreneurs can do with this spectrum," Larry Page said in his blog today. "We will soon have "Wi-Fi on steroids," since these spectrum signals have much longer range than today’s Wi-Fi technology and broadband access can be spread using fewer base stations resulting in better coverage at lower cost. And it is wonderful that the FCC has adopted the same successful unlicensed model used for Wi-Fi, which has resulted in a projected 1 billion Wi-Fi chips being produced this year. Now that the FCC has set the rules, I’m sure that we’ll see similar growth in products to take advantage of this spectrum."

But Wi-Fi on steroids? Sounds more like a case of Internet rug burn. With BSP’s looking to cap user download limits, it seems that having a faster access seems pointless other than a quicker way to rack up fees.