Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Free the Airwaves

"Free the Airwaves!" Who could be against that? Well, the FCC, maybe. The idea behind Free The Airwaves is to use the unused "fuzzy white space" between the channels on old TVs. If it is allowed, it could revolutionize wireless internet and communication. The catch is that the FCC believes that it may interfere with TV reception. Since TV transmissions is soon transferring from analog to digital, this will open up some of the spectrum which may be used for data transfer allowing an increase in speed. Google has thrown its weight behind the idea. This sounds like a good idea, as long as they can work out all the kinks this could be a big step forward for wireless communication.


googleblog.blogspot.com/
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/time-to-free-airwaves.html

"For quite some time we've been talking about the potential of the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels ("white spaces") to provide affordable, high-speed wireless Internet connectivity nationwide. For this to happen, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must allow unlicensed use of this spectrum.

If you care about the future of the Internet, now is the time to take action. The FCC has completed its field testing and is expected to make a ruling in the coming months. With this in mind, today we're launching Free The Airwaves, a new effort to bring users together around this important issue.
"


Google is not alone in this push. Some of the "heavy weights" can be found at http://www.wirelessinnovationalliance.org/index.cfm?objectid=A25E1FC0-F1F6-6035-B3635EA7D5386BE0

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