Google, which lost the bidding war going on at the US Federal Communications Commission's auction of 700 MHz spectrum last spring, now pushes to convince the FCC that it should be able to use the frequencies nevertheless, in the public interest. Of course, there is also Google's own interest. Anything Internet is inevitably linked to Google and will build up the search kings revenues.

Google's new advocacy Web site on the issue, called Free the Airwaves, invites citizens to sign a petition, create their own video testimonials on the subject for posting to YouTube, and to contact their Congressional representatives.

Microsoft and Philips have both previously pushed for the use of white space frequencies (those unused chunks in the television spectrum). TV broadcast 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.

Efforts to use white spaces between digital channels may impact wireless microphones and other technologies that have historically relied on these frequencies. This technical inconvenience has theoretical workarounds, but it remains to be seen how they will perform in real life applications.

The technology is also opposed by groups of companies for various financial and technical reasons. The opponents include mobile-phone operators such as Sprint Nextel Corp and a coalition of television broadcasters that includes representatives from General Electric Co.'s NBC and CBS Corp.

The 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.

Analog television frequencies, which are between the 54 MHz and 698 MHz, are to be freed up under a United States Senate decision in February 2009.