It’s a good day for those interested in wireless Internet. Since the end of the 700 MHz spectrum auction earlier this year, Google has been petitioning the FCC to examine the power of white spaces, those airwaves between licensed spectrum, for public use. Many telecoms have disputed the usefulness of white spaces, saying that they will cause interference with licensed spectrum. The FCC plans to release a report in early November on the subject, though chairman Kevin Martin gave us a glimpse into his thinking yesterday:
He said he is “hoping to take advantage of utilizing these airwaves for broadband services to allow for unlicensed technologies and new innovations in that space.” Martin has been a long-time proponent of unlicensed use of white spaces, but these latest comments could indicate that interference issues examined in the report have been addressed.
The unquoted text comes from Olga Kharif of Business Week.
Google wants these white spaces to remain unlicensed, and thus can be used by the public as a way to connect to the Internet. Telecoms, clearly, want to have control over the spectrum so that they can extract every last dollar from consumers’ pockets. Kharif thinks, though, that there’s a 50-50 chance of Google getting its way. If so, it would be a major victory for mobile broadband usage.
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