(Other) Election Results: FCC Votes 5-0 To Green-Light White Spaces

Greetings from Los Angeles. As I sit here watching the local, state and federal election results roll across my hotel room’s television screen, I’m delighted to also learn via various RSS feeds rolling into my computer that the FCC unanimously (inclusive of a partial dissent by one commissioner) voted today in favor of unlicensed mobile ‘white spaces’ technology. Barring (inevitable?) lawsuits from detractors such as television broadcasters and wireless microphone sellers and users, implementations are approved to begin rolling out subsequent to next February’s NTSC termination date.

Three weeks (and a few days) ago, I encouraged the FCC commissioners to cast their votes in the ‘yes’ direction, and today they surmounted varying political party affiliations and came through. I’m unabashedly delighted, and my confidence in this country’s methods of deciding difficult issues is also greatly bolstered. Speaking of which, I’m not going to share my thoughts on the other various elections being decided today…;-)

Ok, engineers, you now have official white spaces sanction (coincidentally…or not…in parallel with UWB’s implosion). Next, it’s time to unleash your entrepeneurial creativity on the spectrum potential that the FCC has just handed you. I know you won’t disappoint me, and I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

p.s…by the way, the FCC also formally approved the merger of Clearwire and Sprint’s WiMAX efforts.