WASHINGTON-Advocates of unlicensed spectrum are trying to get their hands on TV airwaves they believe will be available in channels 2-51 following the transition to digital TV.
After the digital conversion there will be unused spectrum in many areas, so advocates for unlicensed spectrum are calling for this white space.
“The TV band has been called a `vast wasteland’ of underutilized spectrum. Even after the completion of the DTV transition-and reallocation of TV channels 52-69-an average of only seven full-power DTV stations will be operating on channels 2-51 in the nation’s 210 local TV markets. Only a fraction of the 294 megahertz of prime spectrum allocated to DTV services will actually be utilized in most markets,” said three prominent engineers in a recent policy paper released by the New America Foundation. “The proposed use of white space TV channels could have a particularly great impact on the growth of information services in rural areas, where such empty channels are readily available. In urban areas, where less `white space’ is available, this spectrum would also be useful because the great demand for wireless broadband services and because of the ability of the TV band spectrum to penetrate buildings and objects within buildings better than the higher bands.”
TV broadcasters are opposed to this idea, fearing interference, and have been fighting it at the Federal Communications Commission since former FCC Chairman Michael Powell first proposed it.
Since FCC Chairman Kevin Martin assumed his post, the TV White Space proceeding has been dormant-but no more. As part of the House Commerce Committee’s consideration of the DTV Transition Act of 2005, language was included directing the FCC to complete its consideration of the TV White Space rules within one year.
Score one for the unlicensed wireless advocates.
“The broadcasters are trying to shut this down either on Capitol Hill with a clause in the bill prohibiting the FCC from acting or by convincing Chairman Martin to let the unlicensed white space proceeding sit on his desk,” said Jim Snider, senior research fellow of New America Foundation’s Wireless Futures Program, before the House Commerce Committee vote.
The idea advocated by Snider and others is that Wi-Fi devices could be manufactured to detect whether a TV station is using a channel-if it is, the Wi-Fi device can’t use the spectrum, but if there isn’t a TV station assigned to a channel, it could use that spectrum.
“No local TV stations or other broadcast licensees operate on these frequencies-and broadcasters have no more legal right to use them than a homeowner who occupies a lot next to an adjacent publicly owned lot. The homeowner may covet the lot and believe that development on it will diminish the value of his own lot. But he cannot prevent the government from allowing others to build on it,” said Snider.
Going after use of the white space is the consolation prize after it became obvious that all of the spectrum being made available with the DTV transition would be auctioned. The New America Foundation had urged as recently as July that one-third of the spectrum being made available should be allocated to unlicensed uses.
Congress has not specifically decided what to do with 48 megahertz of unallocated spectrum that will be available once broadcasters return the channels to government. Congress already dictated that 24 megahertz be given to public safety and 36 megahertz auctioned to commercial services. Both the House and Senate Commerce Committees have passed bills assuming all of the spectrum, minus the 24 megahertz for public safety, will be auctioned.
