Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Will 'White Space' ruling stimulate our sagging economy?

        With dire economic news nearly every day, it was good to hear about the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Nov. 4th ruling on the use of vacant television channels, or “white space.”
       When February 2009 rolls around the United States will abandon analog television broadcasting and go all-digital. White spaces, those unused bits of spectrum between UHF television channels, will no longer be needed.
    

This unused TV spectrum will now be available to innovators who can develop new technologies and bring the Internet to millions of Americans in under-served communities.
        You could call it the Telecom Revolution. By opening up competition and jump-starting economic growth when it is sorely needed, this new avenue, may reap many dividends.

       Nearly every market in America has available white space. In some communities more three-quarters of the broadcast spectrum is unused. Free Press activists have tried to bring the issue to public attention for years.
      Ben Scott, Policy Director of the Free Press, said after the FCC ruling, “The phone and cable companies that dominate the broadband market promise more of the same slow speeds and high prices that put us in this mess. Opening white spaces adds much-needed competition and innovation.”


       Like WiFi, the availability of a free unregulated spectrum could create new technologies and new markets, and bring superfast wireless connectivity to consumers. Unlike WiFi, it could put pressure on wireless carriers.
        Sascha Meinrath, Research Director of the wireless future program at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy think-tank, recently said, “Opening up white spaces will lower the cost of communications by facilitating new technology. The software and devices should be an enormous plus for the public.”


       There’s been a pitched battle between broadcasters and techies for years now, and with the FCC opening the door to opportunity the public should benefit from this news.
      Republicans should love the FCC’s unanimous decision to extend the benefits of the spectrum use to the public. It focuses on less regulation and more competition.
         Craig Mundie, Chief Strategy Officer for Microsoft, sent a letter to members of the House of Representatives that said, “Consumers will see a new generation of wireless broadband devices. It will also enable low wireless broadband service in rural areas, self-forming mesh networks capable of routing traffic speeds of 20 megabits per second and above within the mesh.”


      Experts say those chip companies could potentially develop chips that can ride over white spaces much like the WiFi and WiMax enabled chips they make today. So who stands to benefit?
Google, Intel Motorola, Philips and Dell. They all lobbied to “free the spectrum” so they could build data services on it.
         

The losers in this new world of available white space are the telecom carriers like Verizon, At & T, Sprint, and Comcast. They will have to adapt to a new reality, industry experts agree. Those companies fought hard and resisted the idea of sharing their airwaves, but that war is over now with the FCC’s new rules.
         According to the FCC media release, “The rules represent a careful first step to permit the operation of unlicensed devices in the TV white spaces and include numerous safeguards to protect incumbent services against harmful interference. The rules will allow for both fixed and personal/portable unlicensed devices.


       “Such devices must include a geolocation capability and provisions to access over the Internet a data base of the incumbent services, such as full power and low power TV stations and cable system headends, in addition to spectrum-sensing technology. The data base will tell the white space device what spectrum may be used at that location.”
        All white spaces will be subject to equipment certification by the FCC Laboratory, to assure quality. The devices will be tested to a “Proof of Performance” standard both in the lab and in a variety of real-world environments to ensure that they do not cause interference to licensed services, according to the FCC.


         There’s been too much gloom in the news lately. This news is a bit of sunshine in the otherwise bleak landscape of our current economy.
        As it Stands, anything that will give the public more media access at cheaper rates, and stimulate the economy too, has got to be good.

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