Microsoft and Philips claim new testing shows no interference between unlicensed broadband use and television channels…
“Based on a new round of field trials, Microsoft and Philips are asking the FCC to renew testing on devices that can access the Internet using empty buffer spectrums—known as white spaces—between television channels.”
Washington — Microsoft and Philips on Friday presented tests to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which according to the two companies confirm that wireless devices applying spectrum intertwined with that used by TV broadcasters can, operates without the danger of interference.
The companies, along with several other electronics firms, have been lobbying the FCC to authorize the use of spectrum, known as white spaces, to support mobile devices used to access the Internet via a wireless broadband connection.
“Intel, Google, EarthLink and Dell too feel that having access to this spectrum could unleash a wave of wireless innovation.”
Analog TV uses fixed frequencies in the U.S., also known as channels. Between these there are “spaces” which were originally designed to prevent interference between adjacent television channels. In addition, the upcoming switchover to digital television may also free up large areas between 54MHz and 698MHz.
In July, the FCC put a damper on the whole idea when it said testing on a prototype supplied by Microsoft failed to consistently sense or detect TV broadcast or wireless microphone signals. The White Spaces Coalition said the FCC inadvertently used a defective device.
“In new testing, though, Microsoft and Philips claimed success.”
“In over 1,000 measurements, made in many varied locations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California, the test devices were 100 percent successful in detecting television stations’ [signals],” Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., said in a Sept. 21 statement.
A Philips prototype had been successful in avoiding television signals at that time. Philips Electronics is owned by the Netherlands’ Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (PHG).
“The results of the tests carried out by the firms’ engineers maintained that they justified the notion that the devices could work.”
Ed Thomas, technology policy advisor at Microsoft stated, “We encourage the FCC to pursue its own field measurements to corroborate our successful testing, even though it may require the Commission to extend its timeline for approving these devices for a couple of months.”
Lots of FCC commissioners, including Chairman Kevin Martin, have publicly supported the use of white spaces spectrum, as long as its use is proved to be safe.
In the latest filing, both companies claim they now have conducted their own, successful white-spaces prototype testing and are asking the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) to retest the new devices.
The FCC, in Washington, is expected to issue its white spaces findings as early as October, although the agency said in July its unsuccessful testing on the Microsoft prototype did not preclude an ultimate positive ruling on unlicensed use of the spectrum.
“The devices we have tested represent an initial effort, and do not necessarily represent the full capabilities that might be developed with sufficient time and resources,” the FCC report stated.
By October-end, the commission has to take a call on whether it would permit the development of a wireless broadband market or not.
“As the chairman has said previously, if parties ask us to do additional testing, we will do it,” noted Clyde Ensslin an FCC spokesman.
TV broadcasters are against the commercial installment of the devices, retorting that the risk of interference with their signals is too great and it will probably harm the federally mandated transition from analog to digital TV service.
“The National Association of Broadcasters blasted the Microsoft and Philips findings.”
“While frustrated users of Microsoft products have come to expect routine system errors and computer glitches, they do not expect the same to hold true for broadcast television service,” said Dennis Wharton, executive vice president at the National Association of Broadcasters, in reaction to the Microsoft test results.
“It is ironic that a company with a track record of developing less-than-perfect products is now claiming to have invented a device that functions with ‘100 percent accuracy,’ Wharton said in a Sept. 21 statement, in Washington.
Those in favor of the use of the white spaces spectrum argue that it is the only way to extend wireless broadband service to rural parts of the U.S. where it is not economic for existing wireless companies to offer service.
The NAB stood behind the FCC’s July findings.
“As was shown in the FCC’s July test results, the devices proposed by the White Spaces Coalition do not function as advertised,” Wharton said. “They do not detect broadcast signals, and they do interfere with TV reception.”
“This White Spaces Coalition is made up of Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips, Earthlink, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.”
They want to deliver high speed (broadband) internet access to consumers via existing “white space” in unused analog television frequencies. Their archenemies are TV companies, which complained to the FCC that there is a “potential for countless instances of interference to reception of digital-television signals.”
More precisely, Walt Disney Co.’s ABC television network filed comments to the white space project with the FCC pushing for the rejection of the White Spaces Coalition’s proposals.