Shortly after Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft jumped into the debate on white spaces, Microsoft called on the FCC to quickly approve rules which will allow for the emerging tech to be brought to the market.
Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie says: utilising white spaces is “a great opportunity for the U.S. not to just develop the technology but lead in its deployment,” which is something that has not been done with broadband deployment.
TV stations switch over from analogue to digital in February 09 so there will be unused spectrum, or white spaces which the licks of Google and Microsoft wish to utilise for their mobile broadband, but the National Association of Broadcasters say this activity could well disrupt TV channels.
The FCC has already started second round testing of white spaced on devices from Motorola, Philips and Microsoft earlier this year.