White Spaces: Praises For The FCC's Tentative Blessings

I have, I admit with no regrets, been an unabashed advocate of the White Spaces proposal (see here for more coverage) for intelligently (i.e. via so-called ’smart radio’ technology) and dynamically using available UHF and VHF spectrum. Specifically, my support lies with the unlicensed use of available spectrum, thereby enabling White Spaces to replicate the widespread success of Wi-Fi…again, though, in a more spectrum-adaptive manner than does Wi-Fi. I realize in saying this that my stance is counter to that of my fellow editorial team member and good friend Paul Rako, which is fine…we have high regard for each other’s opinions, but we don’t necessarily have to always come to the same conclusions on various topics.

With all due respect to Paul, however, I did scratch my head a bit at one particular portion of his editorial published yesterday…the bit where he confidently stated that White Spaces technology is "something that almost certainly causes TV interference." If that were the case, White Spaces definitely wouldn’t get my backing. But all the meaningful data I’ve seen to date seems, in my opinion, to support the opposite conclusion. Granted, as my August cover story pointed out in detail, the members of the White Spaces Coalition and Wireless Innovation Alliance initially shot themselves in the feet by submitting faulty equipment for FCC inspection…a situation that the NAB, Microphone Interests Coalition and other White Spaces critics predictably blew way out of proportion.

But more recent tests have been extremely encouraging as to the technology’s potential. So it is that Wednesday evening, ironically just a few hours before EDN published Paul’s critique, the FCC gave preliminary ‘proof of concept’ approval (PDF) to White Spaces technology. Ars Technica gives a good analysis of the testing results; I commend their writeup to your perusal. Plenty of implementation details are still to be worked out, of course (in response to one of Paul’s editorial’s points, mobile White Spaces technology was never planned for rollout prior to next February’s NTSC ’sunset’ date). And predictably, the saber rattling by the NAB and other existing spectrum squatters has already begun.

But don’t be confused by the detractors’ diatribes, folks. I’m confident that White Spaces technology can and will work, in a manner that’s respectful of and nimble enough to avoid other transmitters while still delivering meaningful bandwidth, latency and range. And I’m confident that the detractors are little more than squatters, spreading FUD in a desperate attempt to continue clinging to inappropriately wide swaths of spectrum that U.S. taxpayers own, not them…and spectrum that in many cases they’re currently inhabiting in an illegal manner.

I’m excited to see how White Spaces technology evolves in the coming months and years. Specifically, I’m exited to see how the clever minds that are EDN’s readers leverage it to create amazing PAN-, LAN- and WAN-connected products that my feeble noggin can’t even imagine, far from implement. I daresay that White Spaces’ ascendance will probably result in the demise of UWB and alternative high-bandwidth wireless connectivity techniques…but that’s another topic for another blog post…

Have at it, gang! I know you won’t let me down. And hey…have a great weekend.

Followup: check out Ars Technica’s interview with Steve Sharkey of Motorola.