Regulatory News: White Space...Google Promotes "WiFi 2.0"
Google’s proposal to the FCC for mobile broadband services on the airwaves between television broadcast channels, referred to as “white spaces,” is causing concern with Broadcasters and makers of wireless microphones. The opponents argue that interference of their signals will result from the broadband traffic.
Google’s proposal indicates that geo-location technology and wireless beacons "will eliminate any remaining legitimate concerns about the merits of using the white space for unlicensed personal/portable devices” (Martin 2008). "Under our own enhanced protection proposal," wrote Richard Whitt, Google's chief telecom lobbyist in Washington, D.C., "a TV white space device will not transmit on a channel until it first has received an 'all clear' signal for that channel, either directly from a database of licensed transmitters in that area, or from a geo-located device with access to that database" (Martin 2008).
Google’s executives are calling the plan "Wi-Fi 2.0 or Wi-Fi on steroids" (Reuters 2008). Broadcasters have support from at least one Congressman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) as is recent article in The New York Times “urging the FCC to move cautiously and warning that the devices "could disrupt the new digital-TV signals that government and industry have spent so much time and money to promote" (Eggerton 2008).
Sources:
Eggerton, John. FCC Extends White Spaces Testing. Broadcasting and Cable. March 10, 2008; Vol. 138 Issue 10, p3-34, 2p.
Google Wants 'White Space' Spectrum For Wi-Fi 2.0 Service. Reuters/Information Week. (March 25, 2008). Retrieved March 30, 2008 from http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206905527.
Martin, Richard. Google's 'White Space' Plan Could Still Include A Network. Information Week. (March 25, 2008). Retrieved March 31, 2008 from http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206905633.