Google has stepped up its efforts to lobby the FCC to free up broadcast white spaces for unlicensed wireless broadband use by launching FreeTheAirwaves.com. The site provides information about uses for white spaces and invites supporters to sign an online petition to the FCC.
Videos on the site feature Google employees and other supporters explaining in fairly simple terms what white spaces are and how they can be used. The new rhetoric labels them “TV white spaces” to make it clearer to the public that these are the “fuzzy” channels between broadcast channels on old TVs. An estimated 75 percent of these channels are unused.
Google product manager Minnie Ingersoll starts off a series of personable videos, which includes Google software engineer Phil Gosset, and Columbia’s Net Neutrality champion Timothy Wu. The videos are clearly unscripted and natural, adding to the grassroots appeal of using white spaces for unlicensed wireless broadband.
Ingersoll also posts at the Google Blog, acknowledging Google’s business interest in expanding broadband access alongside a call for transparency. Certainly, recent AstroTurfing revelations have increased the need for such transparency. Ingersoll says Google’s business interests luckily coincide with consumer interests.
She writes: “[In one video] Matthew Rantanen of Tribal Digital Village explained how freeing the airwaves would bring new opportunities to the Southern California Native American community, currently underserved by today’s broadband providers. Wally Bowen of the Mountain Area Information Network discussed the potential of these airwaves to bring broadband access to rural communities.”
So far the biggest opposition has come from the National Association of Broadcasters, who fear interference with their digital broadcast signals, from Verizon and other telecom giants who cite fears of interference with their own wireless networks, and, surprisingly from church organizations, who worry use of white spaces will interfere with wireless microphones, which also use the unlicensed spectrum spoken of. Critics have noted there is no risk of microphone interference.
The church organizations aside, broadcaster and telecom opposition has obvious incentives, even if less transparent. Use of unlicensed spectrum means potentially more competition for broadband providers and possibly more expense. In one case, a telecom provider fearing interference was revealed to have cut corners with equipment intended for use in South America. The recent convergence of the telecom industry with the television industry brings up another interesting entanglement.
Tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Motorola have provided the FCC with devices to protect from interference, which the regulatory agency recently tested and is expected to rule upon in the coming months. Google’s FreeTheAirwaves campaign invites consumers to petition the FCC in advance of that ruling.
