Groups push Congress to assign white space for wireless broadband

A broad-based mix of high-tech, consumer, civil rights, educational and Hispanic interests urged Congress to ensure that vacant TV airwaves are freed up for unlicensed wireless broadband as soon as possible.
“Allocating the TV white spaces for unlicensed use will stimulate the development of innovative devices, enable more economical broadband deployment in rural and other underserved areas, and ensure the efficient utilization of unused ‘beach front’ spectrum below 1 GHz,” stated the coalition in a congressional letter released by the New America Foundation, one of the 29 signatories. The coalition noted that injecting prime unlicensed spectrum into the wireless space could help the United States regain lost ground in global broadband penetration rankings.
The Federal Communications Commission is considering a proposal to make unoccupied television channels-which historically have served as TV guard bands-available for wireless broadband. The agency is awaiting testing results from its lab on prototype portable spectrum sensing devices made by Microsoft Corp. and Philips Electronics of North America.
The FCC also must decide whether TV white space will be made available on an unlicensed or licensed basis, or a combination of the two. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin earlier this year told Senate Commerce Committee members an unlicensed approach seemed to make the most sense. There is also the question of whether federal regulators will permit fixed and portable wireless broadband applications in TV white space.
The agency is meeting resistance from politically potent broadcasters and wireless microphone companies that fear interference to their operations from wireless broadband in nearby frequencies. The two industry sectors oppose any portable wireless broadband applications in vacant TV channels. Meantime, Senate and House bills advocate the FCC to move quickly to unleash TV white space for fixed and portable wireless Internet access.
“With the superior propagation characteristics of the TV white spaces, the next generation of advanced wireless devices easily will be able to move enormous amounts of data around homes, schools, offices and neighborhoods, and reach deep into rural areas to provide low-cost broadband service. Once the FCC has completed its testing, there will be no reason why the white spaces cannot become the home of yet another wireless broadband revolution,” the collation stated. Cable TV and Bell telephone giants dominate the U.S. broadband market.
Scott Blake Harris, an attorney who helped high-tech giants engineer a comprise with the Department of Defense that allowed more 5 GHz spectrum into the wireless broadband market, predicts big things in the TV white space because of the spectrum’s excellent signal properties.
“I think this has the potential to be even more important [than 5 GHz],” said Harris.