Google co-founder Larry Page says the time for delays has passed: he wants the Federal Communications Commission to open up fallow "white space" in the TV broadcast spectrum for unlicensed use, and to do it before November's presidential election. Page, who spoke at a Capitol Hill event Wednesday, blasted incumbent broadcasters for lobbying "against the public interest" to block access to the unlicensed spectrum. Calling claims of potential interference with existing broadcast stations "garbage" and "despicable," Page charged that FCC field tests this summer had been "rigged" against spectrum-sensing technology that's designed to enable exploitation of white space.

The event, sponsored by the Wireless Innovation Alliance, highlighted how fierce the battle between white-space advocates and incumbent broadcasters has become. Wednesday also saw the release of a statement from the National Association of Broadcasters that attacked Google's pro–white space petition, which Page said has attracted some 16,000 signatories to date. The NAB argued it gives short shrift to interference concerns, but Page dismissed the interference argument as a red herring deployed by incumbents anxious to stifle competition. "It's just garbage," said Page, "It's not true."

Brandishing one of the freshly-unveiled Android phones for emphasis, Page argued that the benefits of increasingly ubiquitous WiFi technology—he estimated that a billion WiFi-enabled devices would be produced this year— stemmed from the deregulation of "a slice of junky spectrum thought to be good only for garage door openers." He called the 2.4 GHz band used by WiFi devices, "the worst chunk of spectrum you could possibly use" due to its limited range, tendency to be blocked by walls, and unsuitability for bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming HDTV. Given the success of WiFi, said Page, "why we're debating whether we need a little more unlicensed spectrum is beyond me."

With the United States falling to 15th place in broadband penetration among developed nations, Page lamented that all the "static" on interstitial bands represented a "wasted resource." There are, said Page "a billion devices that aren't being produced today because the FCC has not acted."

But his harshest words were reserved for the broadcasters, who he faulted for stalling the exploitation of white spaces, and who he said, "all benefit directly [from the status quo] against the public interest."

Testing fairness

An August FCC field test of spectrum-sensing technology that is designed to enable white-space devices to avoid interfering with existing broadcast stations was, Page claimed, "rigged deliberately" to fail. He implied that the "despicable" influence of the broadcast lobby, which has been "very active in this," was to blame. The tests had aimed to determine whether spectrum-sensing devices could detect the use of low-power wireless microphones in order to avoid those bands, but Page claimed the mics had operated on channels that overlapped with local television, which would have made their signals "impossible" to detect. An FCC spokesman declined to comment on Page's remarks pending full analysis of the test results, which have not yet been publicly released.

Page also complained that interference-avoiding prototypes were being "treated like it's a finished product, like it's a phone." If the FCC simply opened up the spectrum subject to a non-interference requirement, Page said, "the testing will happen once someone has spent $100 million to make a device" that operates in white spaces. "If they just say: 'go, you can sell any device if it doesn't interfere,'" he argued, "people will write those checks; it will happen."

He also noted that spectrum-sensing could be supplemented by geolocation technology keyed to existing databases of regional broadcasters. "This phone knows where it is to three feet," said Page, "It's not a big deal to know where you are."

The event also featured an unscheduled cameo by Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), a strong supporter of exploiting unlicensed spectrum. Inslee said it was "clear that the white hats are on the side of white spaces." He scorned the FCC's cautious approach, comparing it to demanding that the Federal Aviation Administration develop flight rules for airspace before a plane could be built. Opposition to white space use, he alleged, reduced to incumbents' interest in "protecting turf."

Speakers on two other panels—including a representative from perennial Google foe Microsoft—touted the potential benefits of white spaces in greater detail. Stakeholders ranging from small business associations to rural broadband providers to civil rights groups argued that unlicensed spectrum could provide for a number of needs. Depending on the speaker, white space was portrayed as the key to bridging the digital divide, a way of introducing genuine competition in duopolistic broadband markets, and even an aid in saving the planet, as it could enable more efficient energy use by white-space-connected devices on "smart" power grids.

Several speakers suggested that white spaces represented the "last chance" to implement a national broadband policy that would enable universal access and robust competition. Many emphasized the analogy with the 2.4 GHz band used for WiFi, suggesting that the innovation in that space over the past decade has been possible only because the FCC did not insist on knowing in advance how device manufacturers would make use of it.

Among the panel speakers was New America Foundation scholar Michael Calabrese, who addressed an otherwise neglected argument offered against white spaces by broadcasters: The claim that auctioning white spaces for licensed use could provide a financial windfall to a cash-strapped government. Drawing on a freshly-released NAF working paper, Calabrese argued that industry estimates of some $10 billion in revenues from a white space auction were based on a flawed comparison between the "Swiss cheese" of white space bands and bands in the 700 MHz range, which are suitable for high power applications only because they are buffered by vacant "guard bands."

While an FCC spokesman would not speculate on whether the agency would move on white spaces by the November 4 deadline set by Page, he noted that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin had addressed the question at a commissioners' meeting earlier today, and stressed the agency's commitment to come to a decision "as quickly as we can."