Google Calls on FCC to Act on Unused TV Airwaves
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Google co-founder Larry Page on Wednesday called on the Federal Communications Commission to give companies unlicensed access to television airwaves before the November election.
Page also said the multiple rounds of tests conducted by FCC engineers are highly unusual, and he accused broadcasters and wireless microphone manufacturers who oppose the proposal of creating unneeded controversy.
Broadcasters and wireless microphone manufacturers are concerned that the mobile devices Google and other companies want to build on static channels will cause interference with their signals.
Access to the vacant TV channels, sometimes called "white spaces," is a top priority for Google and other technology giants such as Microsoft, Dell and Motorola.
"All the FCC needs to say is that we will allow people to use the spectrum in an unlicensed way if their devices don't interfere. Literally, that one sentence, that's all that needs to be said," Page said at a briefing sponsored by the Wireless Innovation Alliance, a coalition lobbying for access to the empty channels.
In addition to Google, Microsoft, Dell and Motorola, the coalition also includes consumer advocates, civil rights groups and rural organizations.
Page visited Washington in May to ask the FCC and Congress for the ability to use the vacant channels. His appearance in Washington on Wednesday is part of a public campaign Google is conducting to get the FCC to act. Google has generated more than 16,000 comments to the agency.
FCC engineers completed a series of field and lab tests this summer on prototype white space devices to determine whether they could detect and avoid live TV channels and wireless microphones.
Page said the tests were successful, but he also suggested that they weren't necessary. "In general, when the FCC has done things, they haven't said, 'Oh you have to prove that you might be able to do this thing before you really do it in order for us to say you can do it.' You've got this kind of convoluted logic."
FCC engineers are now compiling the information to share with the five commissioners. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Tuesday he wants the commission to act before the end of the year, but he hasn't committed to voting on the white spaces proposal before the election.
Like Page, Martin favors giving companies unlicensed access to the vacant airwaves if there isn't interference. Responding to Page's comments Wednesday, FCC spokesman Robert Kenny said, "We'd like to see the spectrum used more efficiently."
Page noted that 95% of TV spectrum goes unused.
National Association of Broadcasters Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton said Google's petition drive for access to the TV spectrum is dwarfed by the many millions of U.S. households with televisions. "Absent proven interference protection, Google's gamble on the future of television is not a risk Americans should be asked to take," he said.
During the FCC tests, the prototype white space devices generally were able to detect both TV signals and live wireless microphones, although industry engineers on both sides said there were some hiccups.
The FCC didn't test the prototypes with low-power wireless microphones that operate on live TV channels. During some of the tests, Page said wireless microphone operators skewed the results. Google officials suspect that the mikes were broadcasting on live TV channels rather than on vacant ones.
"They're expecting our side of this, people to be able to detect wireless microphones that were actually broadcasting on the same channel as the TV stations. And that's impossible. There's no way to do that," he said.
"What I'm telling you is that the test was rigged, deliberately," Page said. "If you're trying to detect a wireless microphone that's on the same frequency as a television station that's broadcasting at way more power, you're going to detect the television station, not the wireless microphone. It's not rocket science."
Shure Inc., the nation's largest wireless microphone manufacturer, disputed Page's statement. "The FCC's wireless microphone field tests were carefully planned and thoroughly executed based on sound engineering science and real-world operating scenarios," said Mark Brunner, Shure's senior director of public and industry relations.
"These tests were open to the public, and those who choose to discount the results, which have not yet been published, had every option to be present and to witness them for themselves," Brunner said.
With the nod from the FCC, Page said hundreds of millions of dollars would be immediately invested in white space devices that would meet a noninterference standard, and he accused the opponents of standing in the way.
"What's being debated now is, 'Oh, there might be issues, so those can never be solved, so we should never let you try,'" Page said.
-By Fawn Johnson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263; fawn.johnson@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 25th September 2008
