Intellectual Property Law

White spaces - recent comments

By Susan Crawford

More than 25,000 comments have been filed with the FCC in the white spaces proceeding (search on 04-186 in the ECFS system on the FCC site).  Here are some recent highlights:

1.  The White Spaces Coalition ( Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips, Earthlink, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics) is worried about 11th-hour calls to eliminate any unlicensed use of the white spaces.  The Coalition points out that the only proposal for licensed use of the white spaces is coming in the form of “fixed point to point wireless backhaul” — the FiberTower Plan proposed by Sprint.  The Coalition doesn’t think that proposed use of the white spaces makes sense:

Many of the communities that would benefit the most from unlicensed access to the white spaces reside in urban areas, where high power operations proposed by the FiberTower Plan are infeasible.

The bottleneck for wireless backhaul deployment is not spectrum availability, it is the need for infrastructure deployment, which would remain no matter what spectrum is used.

2.  CTIA wants “licensed, flexible use” of the white spaces.

3.  Motorola says sensing-only unlicensed devices are not ready for prime time, but some combination of geolocation, beacons (link to summary of Google position from March of this year on beacons), and databases for checking what spectrum is actually being used may allow for successful unlicensed use of the white spaces - and could accommodate authorized wireless mics.  Motorola also points out that wireless transmissions will have to be powerful enough in rural areas to “realize rural broadband benefits.”

4.   Google said back in July that allowing only fixed (not portable) uses of the white spaces in rural areas doesn’t make sense, because this approach will limit the marketplace for portable devices and will therefore drive up their price.  The company is also arguing that adjacent channels must be made available in cities.

If you’ve made recent filings that you’d like us to read, please link to them in the comments.

Full post as published by Susan Crawford Blog on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).