Gates, Microsoft lobby FCC for unlicensed white spaces use

Microsoft is lobbying the FCC this week to allow unlicensed use of so-called "white spaces" television spectrum for wireless Internet services.

In a conference call Monday morning, Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie laid out his company's position in the white spaces debate and argued that opening the white space spectrum to unlicensed use would put the United States at the forefront of deploying mobile broadband technology. He compared the potential of white spaces, which are pieces of unlicensed spectrum currently unused by television stations on the VHF and UHF frequency bands, to that of Wi-Fi Internet services, which also operate on unlicensed spectrum.

"As we look to rural communities, we'll see more community broadband connectivity," he said. "Using unlicensed white spaces spectrum, we could connect farm houses in the square states that you couldn't achieve with Wi-Fi."

Mundie said wireless devices could operate on the unlicensed spectrum without interfering with television broadcast signals as long as they came equipped with sensing capabilities that would automatically shut the device down if it comes into interference with broadcast spectrum, as well as access to a geo-location database that tracks mobile devices by locating them through their specific IP address, media-access-control address, radio-frequency identification or other location-based information.

Mundie also said Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates would be talking via telephone to FCC commissioner Robert McDowell to drum up support for allowing unlicensed white space use.

During a press conference last week, FCC chairman Kevin Martin said he was proposing to let carriers and other vendors deploy devices in white space spectrum which operates unlicensed at powers of 100 milliwatts. His proposal would also permit use of white space on channels adjacent to existing television stations at powers of up to 40 milliwatts. The FCC is planning to officially vote on whether to allow unlicensed white space use during its Nov. 4 meeting.

Microsoft, Google and several other high-profile tech companies have been pushing for the FCC to open up the spectrum for unlicensed use, arguing it would help bring mobile broadband to under-served regions and would help close the so-called "digital divide" between many urban and rural areas in the United States. The campaign for unlicensed white space use has met staunch opposition from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which doesn't want mobile Internet devices operating on unlicensed spectrum clashing with broadcasts on nearby frequencies.