FCC Clears Google-Backed Plan on Airwaves Use

WASHINGTON(Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesdayapproved a plan sought by tech companies like Google Inc and MicrosoftInc to open soon-to-be-vacant television airwaves to new wirelessdevices.

The five-member FCC voted to open unlicensed pockets of the spectrumknown as white space that will become available when U.S. broadcastersare required to move to digital television next year.

Companies like Google and Microsoft, as well as consumer groups,said access to the white space airwaves would encourage innovation incellular telephones and wireless devices, much as WiFi did.

"Let’s hope it’s not just Wi-Fi on steroids but Wi-Fi on amphetamines," FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said.

FCC commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate dissented in part, saying shepreferred a more formal process to deal with interference issues.

Traditional broadcasters such as Walt Disney Inc’s ABC, GeneralElectric’s NBC, CBS Corp and even country singer Dolly Parton opposedthe plan. They said signals sent over that part of the spectrum couldcause interference with broadcasts or wireless microphones at liveproductions.

A broadcasters’ group, Maximum Service Television, said the decision"imperils American’s television reception in order to satisfy the"free" spectrum demands of Google and Microsoft."

The FCC sided with the tech companies and consumer groups after tworounds of testing the devices. An agency engineering report releasedseveral weeks ago said the spectrum could be used without causingharmful interference.

Harold Feld, senior vice president at the consumer group MediaAccess Project, said the vote will lead to expanded investment inbroadband and other technologies.

"Motorola, Google and Microsoft have invested five years andmillions of dollars to get this approved," Feld said. "The people thatmade those decisions are going to show they made good decisions."

The bi-partisan vote by three Republican and two Democratic FCCvoting members signals that greater access to white space will moveforward regardless of whether Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama wins the presidency, said Ben Scott, policy director of the advocacy group Free Press.

Republicans back white space access as a free-market approach, whileDemocrats like that it improves affordability and is pro-consumer,Scott said. "No matter who is president, this white space policy willbe expanded upon," he said.

The decision "will allow the marketplace to produce new devices andnew applications that we can’t even imagine today," RepublicanCommissioner Robert McDowell said.

The order requires both fixed and portable devices to be capable ofsensing television stations and wireless microphones and that thosedevices be registered in an FCC database.

(Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)