A Watershed Moment
Unused broadcast spectrum could bring big advances in Internet access, and much more.
A wave of innovation could be unleashed soon — if Washington lets it.
The potential for progress comes from vacant frequencies, known as the "white spaces," in the TV spectrum band. Their use could enable many technological advances and bring huge consumer benefits, including the greatest improvements in Internet access since the advent of Wi-Fi.
First, however, clear federal policies and rules are needed that allow the white spaces to be used. Left vacant since the beginnings of television, these frequencies are an enormously valuable public resource today. That’s because the same characteristics that make them good for TV — their ability to cover broad areas and penetrate walls and trees — also make them good for sending and receiving broadband data.
Making the white spaces available to the public will extend broadband Internet access to rural and other areas beyond the reach of current providers. White spaces also can be used to create highly reliable, self-forming broadband mesh networks for entire communities, and to distribute music and video content wirelessly among devices within homes, schools and businesses. White spaces have great potential not only for fixed purposes — such as broadband hotspots — but also for use with portable devices, such as laptops, TVs, PDAs, MP3 players, printers and digital cameras.
Ultimately, putting white spaces to work will enhance the nation’s economic competitiveness by helping the United States to keep pace with broadband deployment and innovation in the global marketplace. When Internet access grows, our economy grows.
For the nation to fully realize these benefits, innovators must be allowed to develop products and services that employ white spaces in compliance with clear rules established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The FCC has been working to develop such rules, diligently collecting data and drawing on its tremendous technical expertise and decades of experience with new wireless services. Before white spaces are employed by any consumer devices, the FCC will put the devices through a rigorous certification process to ensure that they will not interfere with nearby broadcast and wireless microphone operations.
With these safeguards, it’s vital that appropriate rules be adopted without undue delay.
Given clear rules of the road, broadband innovators can move forward to develop new ways to serve consumers. Their efforts will help stimulate job creation and economic growth, and help us all become better connected.
