Google and "white spaces"

[Ace Purple]

Google co-founder Larry Page turned up on Capitol Hill today to boost the company's "Free the Airwaves" campaign, and he had some strong words for those who oppose their bid to open more of the airwaves for high speed Internet access.

Google, Microsoft and others in the tech world want the FCC to allow the unlicensed use of "white spaces" -- the gaps in the spectrum between television channels -- as a means of making broadband Internet access widely available in the U.S. But broadcasters fear that their use could cause interference with television stations and other devices, such as wireless microphones.

Page said some of the tests that have been done to determine whether new devices using the white spaces would interfere had been "rigged." A Google spokesman said later he was referring to tests held in August at FedEx Field.

Link to the full article

[AmpedNow]

I don't think it's about "interference", it's about potential competition.

I like the idea of possibly giving people in the boonies broadband through WiMax-type technology, using empty TV channels.

[sportsvoice]

The problem is that right now lots of wireless mics and other devices are operating in those "white space" areas. For instance, my sideline reporter for football broadcasts has a wireless mic and a belt pack that receives cue-back from our headphone bus up in the booth. (The beltpack system we are using is actually a wireless in-ear monitor system for musicians.) Both operate in empty TV channels. Fire up a WiMax system or other digital carrier and the noise floor goes up, causing the mic and beltpack to squelch off and have reduced range.

I don't know what a good solution might be...maybe allocate "white space" in certain channel or frequency ranges for WiMax type operation and maybe another channel range for wireless mics.

[Tom Taggart]

I'm convinced that most of the IT geeks either slept through their basic physics courses, or skipped class to play war of the worlds or something.

Just because you can't detect a signal with a relatively deaf receiver doesn't mean that someone who is licensed (or permitted) to be on there might receive interference if you fire up your unlicensed device.

[AmpedNow]

UHF would be a good choice in rural states like WV. Even with the HD migration, there's still plenty of space.

I think that's Google's point... With all of the TV stations "spread out" over a wider frequency swath, there will now be more "white space" available, just about everywhere.

They could work out spacing requirements, like the ones that already exist for TV and radio.

[Tom Taggart]

TV stations are not "spread out over a wider swath." In order to open up the 700 mhz band, 18 TV channels were eliminated.
Stations operating on these channels had to move to lower channels. Because of propagation issues, the lower 5 channels are not great for DTV, many of those stations attempted to move to higher channels. Obviously, the "beachfront" property of channels 7 to 13 can't accommodate all of these stations. So 14 through 51 will become much more crowded then before.

So we have more stations trying to operate on fewer channels. Preliminary results indicate signal levels needed for reliable DTV reception are considerably higher than initially predicted. So look for more moves as stations attempt to maximize their coverage. While this may still leave "white space" in West Virginia, Google wants to operate its wi-fi transmitters in urban areas. Where we will have many more people trying to receive DTV off air, than here in the mountain state, where most people use cable or satellite.