There has been so much talk about the upcoming 700MHz auctions for wireless going to be held by the FCC, that another sector of the spectrum is also being considered. In February 2009, the TV broadcasters must provided a digital signal and will be freeing up analog spaces they currently use. There is now a coalition of technology leaders that want to use these older wave lengths to supply a broadband connection to more Americans.

There is now a “White Spaces Coalition,”  which includes Google, Dell, EarthLink, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, and Philips who are asking the FCC to open up this ‘white spaces’ for broadband broadcast. On the flip side of the coin is the TV broadcasters who feel that using this so called ‘white spaces’ could interfere with their broadcasting signals. The first devices submitted to the FCC seemed to prove this point and were rejected. However, there is still hope that these problems can be overcome and the ‘whites spaces’ could in fact be used for broadband transmissions without interfering with broadcast TV.

Over at the Google blog site they state:

The FCC’s engineering analysis, released two weeks ago, confirms what we have stated all along: it is technologically feasible to provide Internet access through this segment of spectrum without interfering with either digital television signals or wireless microphones. While one of the prototypes unfortunately was damaged, the other prototype fully demonstrated the promise of using these “white spaces” for Internet access.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has expressed a keen interest in keeping this matter moving forward, and the coalition will be working with FCC staff to address any remaining technical issues. As the Washington Post notes today, the promise that this spectrum holds for bringing the Internet to more Americans is too great to ignore.

I personally believe this is a great idea and holds some potential promise to bringing broadband to more people in the US. As long as it does not interfer with the TV broadcasting signals, I can see no reason why this technology should not be adopted.

What do you think?

Comments welcome as always.

Google article here.

[tags]white, spaces, tv, broadband, google, microsoft, [/tags]