Amateur hour

A perfect storm could be forming for high-tech giants and their campaign to secure vacant TV spectrum – known as white spaces – for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed wireless devices. It may be one of those things – owing to a confluence of factors – that simply won’t happen this presidential election year.
For starters, to approve the use of white spaces for wireless broadband access, the Federal Communications Commission would have to base its decision on mixed government testing results as well as strikingly divergent views from major stakeholders. Broadcasters insist there’ll be interference to TV signals and high-tech companies believe there are technological solutions to make white spaces a commercial wireless success. But it’s not just opposition from the mighty broadcast lobby. Concerns also have been voiced about white spaces device interference with wireless microphones and medical telemetry gear. Meantime, the mobile-phone industry wants white spaces auctioned. Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA say white spaces offer a less-costly option for wireless backhaul.
Last week, a cross section of professional and collegiate sports interests and ESPN told the FCC white-spaces proposals should be sacked. Ironically, Microsoft has become somewhat of an embarrassment for the tech sector because of testing irregularities with devices submitted by the software king.
White-spaces testing is critical both in terms of results and the role they play in FCC decision-making. The FCC’s handling of studies and data (internal and third-party) in various rulemakings has become a flashpoint on Capitol Hill. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently nailed the FCC over its treatment of studies in broadband-over-power-line decisions. The American Radio Relay League, representing amateur radio operators who fear interference from BPL operations, sued the FCC for not fully disclosing for public comment staff studies related to the BPL rulemaking. Former FCC chairman Michael Power oversaw the original BPL decision in 2004. The ruling was upheld in 2006 under Chairman Kevin Martin.
To his credit, Martin has made white-space device testing open to the public. The backdrop to this warring is the tenuous transition to digital TV, set to be completed next February. All told, the apparent momentum shift does not bode well this year for tech firms wanting to exploit TV white spaces. Techies could be in for a long season.