Google co-founder Larry Page says the time for delays has passed: he wants the Federal Communications Commission to open up fallow “white space” in the TV broadcast spectrum for unlicensed use, and to do it before November’s presidential election. Page, who spoke at a Capitol Hill event Wednesday, blasted incumbent broadcasters for lobbying “against the public interest” to block access to the unlicensed spectrum. Calling claims of potential interference with existing broadcast stations “garbage” and “despicable,” Page charged that FCC field tests this summer had been “rigged” against spectrum-sensing technology that’s designed to enable exploitation of white space.
The event, sponsored by the Wireless Innovation Alliance, highlighted how fierce the battle between white-space advocates and incumbent broadcasters has become. Wednesday also saw the release of a statement from the National Association of Broadcasters that attacked Google’s pro–white space petition, which Page said has attracted some 16,000 signatories to date. The NAB argued it gives short shrift to interference concerns, but Page dismissed the interference argument as a red herring deployed by incumbents anxious to stifle competition. “It’s just garbage,” said Page, “It’s not true.”
Brandishing one of the freshly-unveiled Android phones for emphasis, Page argued that the benefits of increasingly ubiquitous WiFi technology—he estimated that a billion WiFi-enabled devices would be produced this year— stemmed from the deregulation of “a slice of junky spectrum thought to be good only for garage door openers.” He called the 2.4 GHz band used by WiFi devices, “the worst chunk of spectrum you could possibly use” due to its limited range, tendency to be blocked by walls, and unsuitability for bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming HDTV. Given the success of WiFi, said Page, “why we’re debating whether we need a little more unlicensed spectrum is beyond me.”
With the United States falling to 15th place in broadband penetration among developed nations, Page lamented that all the “static” on interstitial bands represented a “wasted resource.” There are, said Page “a billion devices that aren’t being produced today because the FCC has not acted.”
But his harshest words were reserved for the broadcasters, who he faulted for stalling the exploitation of white spaces, and who he said, “all benefit directly [from the status quo] against the public interest.”
read more here http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080926-page-blasts-whitespace-fud-on-capitol-hill.html
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