Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave the go-ahead to a plan issued by chairman Kevin J. Martin, which allows currently unused TV airwaves to be opened up for unlicensed use.

The white spaces spectrum is scheduled to be made available to be used by various gadgets connected to the Internet in February 2009, when the United States make the switch from analog to digital television.

Nevertheless, the decision to open up the airwaves has not been hailed by everyone, not to mention that ever since Martin’s plan was released, many have voiced their concerns about and disapproval of the measure. Consequently, in mid-October, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Association of Maximum Service Television and the ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox TV networks, which were later joined in their efforts by other broadcasters and station owners, opposed the plan and requested the FCC to postpone their vote on the matter.

Even though the Commission had made public a report that read no major interference issues with television sets and wireless microphones were to come from opening up the spectrum, many still feared that would happen and claimed the FCC engineers had not thoroughly investigated the possible problem.

On the other hand, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have been heavy allies to the FCC, deeming that making white spaces available for future devices would not only enable more people to have access to the Internet, but would also give rise to wireless technology innovations.