Tuesday, November 4, while American citizens were electing their next president, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) officials were casting a vote of their own. On whether to open up or not unused radio and television airwaves for unlicensed use by various devices connected to the Internet. The FCC approved of making the white spaces spectrum available unanimously, with 5 to 0 votes.

The plan to open up the frequencies was introduced by FCC chairman Kevin Martin, who has been scheduled to be replaced when a new administration came at the helm of the United States, which was the reason the voting took place the same day as the presidential elections.

Martin’s plan was released along with a report by the Commission’s engineers, which read that using the airwaves would not interfere with television sets and wireless microphones used in live music performances.

Nevertheless, broadcasters and station owners challenged the report at that time, stating that the interference issue had not been properly investigated.

On October 17, the Association of Maximum Service Television, the ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox Televisions networks and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) filed an emergency request to the FCC, asking them to postpone the vote for 45 days, in order to give them time to respond to the report. Moreover, the request read that another delay of 25 days was necessary so that the Commission to formulate replies to the broadcasters’ comments.

The Broadway theater industry also opposed Kevin Martin’s plan, voicing their concerns that making the airwaves available would interfere with their wireless microphones and would hinder communication among crew members.

Commissioners said during the Tuesday meeting that they believed the tests that had been conducted to have provided sufficient proof that interference was not to be a major issue. Furthermore, the FCC chairman informed that all the devices that would use the frequencies were to be strictly regulated by the Commission, which would require all gadgets be fitted with technology capable to determine whether the channels they are planning to transmit on are protected for use  by station owners or broadcasters. If so, the devices would need to search for other channels.

Still, the decision to open up the radio and TV airwaves did not only come into criticism, having been received with high acclaim by large companies such as Google, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, alongside most of the technology industry, which have emphasized the benefits of the measure. First of all, making the frequencies available could prompt the development of new devices to use the white spaces spectrum, which is a belief shared by many commissioners as well. In addition, more people would have access to the Internet and all of its features via the currently unused airwaves, which are scheduled to become available in February 2009, when the United States are set go from analog to digital television.