Unused digital channels could increase wireless access

PC World - One luxury of living or working in a big city is access to high-speed wireless Internet connections that may not be available in rural areas of the U.S. But increased access to wireless networks may be just around the corner.

Before the end of the year, the House is expected to consider a provision proposed by Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) that would force the Federal Communications Commission to decide whether "white spaces" -- empty broadcast-TV channels -- should be made available for use by unlicensed wireless networks.

"[This provision] is a win for public safety and for consumer choice," says a spokesperson for Inslee. "By freeing up the spectrum, we're going to spur technological innovation and economic growth."

Digital TV Transition Opens Up Space

With both the House and the Senate having recently passed bills requiring television broadcasts to switch from analog to digital sometime in early 2009, the 700-MHz band (channels 52 to 69) will be cleared of programming and moved to lower frequencies (channels 2 to 51). The 700-MHz band will be set aside for public-safety emergency transponders and for bidding by wireless networks.

According to the New America Foundation, the average TV market in the U.S. uses approximately seven high-power channels of the 67 that it are allocated. This leaves an abundance of free channels that could be used for wireless access.

"The great propagation characteristics [of low frequencies], coupled with innovative antenna technology, could bring broadband to rural America," says Mary L. Brown, senior telecommunications policy counsel at Cisco Technologies.

The New America Foundation calls the current 2.4-GHz band used for Wi-Fi access "small and uneconomical."

Broadcasters Oppose Plan

The FCC has proposed a plan to allocate white space, but the broadcast industry is worried that propagation of unlicensed devices has not proved interference-free and may compromise communication among public-safety transponders.

"This requires you to be extremely prescient as a regulator to get rules right in the first place, and it shifts the burden to entities already in the band," says David Donovan, president of Maximum Service Television. "Public safety cannot be the guinea pig for this new technology."

The issue of white-space allocation has not been considered by the Senate. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin states (download PDF) in the commission's release on the issue, ET Docket No. 04-186: "While I am pleased that this proceeding has the potential to encourage new and innovative unlicensed services, I remain concerned about the proceeding's impact on the broadcasters and their transition to digital television."

Donovan also urges acautious approach.

"If this [technology] works, build it and let's test it before we put it in a bandwidth with a high potential for interference," he says.

Crouch writes for the Medill News Service.