Microsoft Talks White Space as Debate Intensifies - Page 2

Page 2 of 2

While the commission has been receiving pressure from the pro-white spaces camp, which is organized loosely under the Wireless Innovation Alliance, the broadcasters, television networks and a spate of like-minded groups have been pushing back just as hard.

The past week has seen a fusillade of comments from groups and individuals asking for the FCC to delay the vote. The National Association of Broadcasters distributed those comments to its press list, often with the salutation, "To reporters covering efforts in Washington by Microsoft, Google and others to introduce interference-causing 'white-space' devices ..."

Last week, a group of eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Martin calling for the public-comment period the broadcasters are requesting. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., and Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., both sent similar letters.

Most recently, John Dingell, D-Mich., who also serves as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter asking for responses to a series of questions about the technical findings of the FCC engineers' report and the steps it would take to guard against interference.

Also questioning the wisdom of the commission moving ahead with the vote are the Sports Technology Alliance -- whose members include the nation's largest professional sports leagues, such as Major League Baseball and the National Football League -- Broadway theatre groups, megachurches and wireless microphone manufacturers have each voiced similar opposition.

For the latter groups, the concern is less about TV interference than about interference with wireless microphones, which operate in the same unlicensed spectrum bands. The most recent communiqué came from none other than country music legend Dolly Parton.

"I don't know all the legalese concerning this issue so I've had some very smart people inform me about the legalities here," Parton wrote the commissioners.

"I've learned about the lengthy FCC Laboratory Division's report released just days ago demonstrating the ineffectiveness of technology meant to prevent wireless interference and the FCC's intent to vote on rules derived from this report without allowing affected industries to review the proposal. Based on that, I join the National Association of Broadcasters' emergency request to stay the vote scheduled for Election Day."

Meanwhile, white-spaces proponents have secured letters of support from Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

Supporters have maintained that the FCC's testing demonstrated a "proof of concept" -- that devices that met certain technical requirements could reliably avoid passing into spectrum occupied by TV broadcasts and interfering with over-the-air signals.

The tests -- and proposed devices -- included two technical mechanisms to avoid interference. The first, a spectrum-sensing capability, enables the devices to detect and avoid spectrum occupied by TV broadcasts. The second, a location-awareness technology, prompts the device to query the FCC's database of local TV channels, alerting it to the unavailable spectrum in any given region.

Martin's draft order is not public yet, but it appears that it would give a broader authorization for devices relying on location awareness than spectrum sensing, which the broadcasters claim was performed with a dubious 50-percent reliability rate in the recent testing.