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FCC Testing, Disagreements Continue on TV Broadcast "White Spaces" Use for Wi-Fi

October 9, 2007

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has indicated it intends to further test Wi-Fi's viability in the "white spaces" unoccupied TV spectrum.

Observers have spurred this on since the FCC noted back in August of this year that a signal-sensing utility being utilized by Microsoft seemed to cause interference within these frequencies. Critics, including broadcasters,  attributed this interference to the testing-devices "defects," while testing device-maker Philips as well as Microsoft asked the FCC to do more testing to prove their belief that Wi-Fi can work in white spaces.

Joining Microsoft and Philips in this advocacy are significant tech industry players such as Google, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Palm.

RCR  Networking News points out, however, that not all tech companies are speaking with one voice about the white space issue as it stands now.

"Motorola Inc. has proposed combining cognitive radio technology with a geolocation database to determine which channel would yield the highest performance without causing interference to TV broadcast operations. Motorola demonstrated its solution to FCC engineers in late August," writes RCR Wireless News' Jeffrey Silva

Similarly, Silva notes that last week, Cisco Systems Inc. urged federal regulators to rigorously scrutinize technical requirements for using white spaces. “We are interested in assuring a satisfactory technical resolution of these important interference issues because we do not want to introduce harmful interference to cable set top boxes manufactured by our Scientific-Atlanta subsidiary in a way that would degrade the viewing experience of cable consumers,” Silva notes that Cisco told the FCC.

A decision on white spaces is due by early next year.




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