FCC Approves Whitespace Plan

By Geoff Duncan
November 05, 2008

The FCC has approved a plan to allow unlicensed use of "white spaces" in soon-to-be-vacated television spectrum for use by wireless devices.

The Federal Communications Commission has voted to approve a plan (PDF) that will allow wireless devices to operate in unused "whitespaces" in the television broadcast spectrum. The whitespace plan has been backed by technology companies like Google and Microsoft as a means to enable new capabilities in wireless devices like mobile phones, media players, and cameras; however, it has been opposed by traditional broadcasters and even entertainers concerned the use of whitespace spectrum would interfere with television broadcasts and existing technologies like wireless microphones.

The decision to apoprove whitespace use "will allow the marketplace to produce new devices and new applications that we can't even imagine today," Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said in a statment (PDF). Technology companies have been working for years to develop technology ...

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