Google's Page: White spaces test was unfair

of Microsoft, Motorola, Dell and other companies spoke at the white spaces event. Allowing broadband devices on the white spaces spectrum would spark hundreds of millions of dollars in new technology investment and may present the last chance the U.S. has for creating a new national broadband network that competes with cable and telecom companies, participants said.

Representative Jay Inslee, a Washington state Democrat, said opponents of white spaces are interested in protecting their turf. "If you are for innovation, you are for the white spaces," he said.

The technology exists to use white spaces devices without interfering with other signals, added Mark McHenry, CEO of Shared Spectrum, a company that sells spectrum-sensing radio technology to the U.S. military. Shared Spectrum's radio equipment allows the U.S. military to set up wireless networks in other countries without interfering with local television, he said.

The company is "convinced" that white spaces devices can work without interfering in the U.S., he said.