Google Wants A Piece Of The “White Spaces”

Although not among the winners at the 700MHz auction, Google wants another chance, this time on the so-called “white spaces” in television airwaves, which according to the company could be used by wireless Internet providers. In a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission on Monday, Google said consumers would benefit from faster and better WiFi services by the end of 2009.

In a conference call on Monday, Google’s counsel Rick Whitt said: “Google is a strong believer in the potential of this spectrum to bring Internet access to more Americans,” adding that “the spectrum is way too valuable to be wasted” (Bloomberg News ).

Google, as well as Microsoft, is a firm believer that the remaining 95 percent of space that is currently not in use could greatly benefit Americans by offering companies such as these the opportunity to offer high speed mobile access to consumers without interfering with the TVs.

Rick Whitt said, in the name of Google, that this is the right time to take action, and start a similar bidding process like in the 700MHz auction that recently ended. For those who fear that this move would interfere with TV viewers, the transition would only take place after February 2009, when the conversion from analog to digital TV service is set to take place.

The “white spaces” are in fact slices of unused spectrum in between television channels that were originally intended to prevent radio waves or adjacent channels from interfering with each other. The idea of using them has been around for some time now, but it raised a lot of questions concerning the interference problem.

After February 2009, when the analog television will turn into digital television, the spectrum could be efficiently used for data services. After all, it’s a mostly unused space and it could be used in a more efficient way, companies such as Google and Microsoft say.