[Infowarrior] - FCC clears Google-backed plan on airwaves

[Richard Forno]

FCC clears Google-backed plan on airwaves use (Reuters)

     * Posted on Tue Nov 4, 2008 6:07PM EST

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20081104/tc_nm/us_fcc_whitespace_1

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on  
Tuesday approved a plan sought by tech companies like Google Inc and  
Microsoft Inc to open soon-to-be-vacant television airwaves to new  
wireless devices.

The five-member FCC voted to open unlicensed pockets of the spectrum  
known as white space that will become available when U.S. broadcasters  
are required to move to digital television next year.

Companies like Google and Microsoft, as well as consumer groups, said  
access to the white space airwaves would encourage innovation in  
cellular telephones and wireless devices, much as WiFi did.

"Let's hope it's not just Wi-Fi on steroids but Wi-Fi on  
amphetamines," FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said.

FCC commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate dissented in part, saying she  
preferred a more formal process to deal with interference issues.

Traditional broadcasters such as Walt Disney Inc's ABC, General  
Electric's NBC, CBS Corp and even country singer Dolly Parton opposed  
the plan. They said signals sent over that part of the spectrum could  
cause interference with broadcasts or wireless microphones at live  
productions.

A broadcasters' group, Maximum Service Television, said the decision  
"imperils American's television reception in order to satisfy the  
"free" spectrum demands of Google and Microsoft."

The FCC sided with the tech companies and consumer groups after two  
rounds of testing the devices. An agency engineering report released  
several weeks ago said the spectrum could be used without causing  
harmful interference.

Harold Feld, senior vice president at the consumer group Media Access  
Project, said the vote will lead to expanded investment in broadband  
and other technologies.

"Motorola, Google and Microsoft have invested five years and millions  
of dollars to get this approved," Feld said. "The people that made  
those decisions are going to show they made good decisions."

The bi-partisan vote by three Republican and two Democratic FCC voting  
members signals that greater access to white space will move forward  
regardless of whether Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama  
wins the presidency, said Ben Scott, policy director of the advocacy  
group Free Press.

Republicans back white space access as a free-market approach, while  
Democrats like that it improves affordability and is pro-consumer,  
Scott said. "No matter who is president, this white space policy will  
be expanded upon," he said.

The decision "will allow the marketplace to produce new devices and  
new applications that we can't even imagine today," Republican  
Commissioner Robert McDowell said.

The order requires both fixed and portable devices to be capable of  
sensing television stations and wireless microphones and that those  
devices be registered in an FCC database.