A CE-led industry coalition and two broadcast lobbying groups are intensifying their efforts regarding the proposed use for new high-speed wireless services in the "unused" portion of DTV spectrum. The broadcasters are fighting to prevent what they believe will be a blow to the DTV Transition, while the CE companies are pushing to allow the development of new wireless devices and services.

Aldo Cugnini
Analyst

Pushing for government regulations allowing the use of unlicensed radio devices, the "White Spaces Coalition" group includes Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips, Earthlink, and Samsung. Last month, the Coalition and an additional 22 organizations sent a letter to Congress, claiming that, "Properly regulated unlicensed use will cause no harmful interference to incumbent licensed services." At issue are so-called cognitive radios, or "smart radios," that can monitor a frequency and see if anything is being broadcasted on it. If no transmission is detected, they go ahead and transmit their own signal over the frequency.

In response, the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) and NAB sent letters last week to each member of Congress, stating their opposition to the proposals to allow unlicensed devices to operate within the DTV spectrum. "Opening up the digital broadcast spectrum to portable unlicensed devices as the White Spaces Coalition is proposing … would turn the DTV transition on its head," the groups wrote. "The Coalition wants to allow millions of transmitting devices to operate on television frequencies, without a license."

The broadcaster groups went on to say, "Because of significant interference concerns with consumer’s new digital television sets, … we are writing to ask that you oppose opening the broadcast spectrum to portable unlicensed devices, such as wireless laptops, PDAs and remote-controlled devices." In earlier filings with the FCC, the groups stated, "The DTV Transition … will be seriously jeopardized if TV band devices are allowed to operate in the band…"

Industry experts are divided on whether the new devices would cause serious interference with broadcast services, i.e. DTV. One of the difficulties is that the various interference mechanisms are non-linear, i.e., they don’t show up in a straight on-channel vacancy analysis, but are caused by interfering signals on channels other than the existing DTV signals. The CRC (Communications Research Centre) lab in Canada, in a study sponsored by MSTV, concluded that interfering signals, on adjacent channels, second and third adjacent channels, and various image channels, can be "problematic," and result in "significant" interference.

On the other hand, Edmond Thomas, former Chief Engineer at the FCC and currently a partner at Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis (the legal firm representing the Coalition) says, "We’re absolutely certain it won’t interfere with television."

The White Spaces Coalition has also made several filings to the Commission, with supporting technical data. In March, the Coalition submitted to the FCC a wireless Internet access device built by Microsoft for testing and approval. The FCC plans to have results of the tests ready in July. A similar device has since been submitted by Philips.

The FCC has been evaluating the white spaces issue since 2003. The Commission can do one of three things: 1) nothing, in which case new devices are essentially illegal; 2) licensing, wherein new devices must go through a compliance and certification process; and 3) allowing unlicensed operation, as the Coalition is proposing. Under its current schedule, final rules governing usage of the white space are due in October 2007. Possible delays, of course, will depend on the vigor (and legal budgets) of the adversaries.