CTIA urges FCC to license – and auction – TV white spaces: Trade group runs against Google’s proposal for unlicensed use

The TV white spaces debate — already highly controversial and politicized, but largely limited to potential unlicensed Wi-Fi use — just got messier.
The mobile-phone industry recommended to the Federal Communications Commission that most vacant broadcast channels be auctioned for area-wide licensing. Cellular trade group CTIA floated the idea shortly after Google Inc. offered a compromise proposal to unleash propagation-friendly TV white spaces for unlicensed wireless broadband access without interference to digital broadcasting, wireless microphones and other uses. Google’s proposal relies on a Motorola Inc. technology that combines geo-location and beacons.
“Ultimately, the TV white space is too valuable to lie fallow,” stated CTIA in a new FCC filing. “Licensing TV white-space spectrum will best facilitate the deployment of wireless broadband and other advances services, while protecting incumbent from harmful interference. The commission should auction the majority of this spectrum for prompt licensed use.”
CTIA said such a move would not be unprecedented, pointing to successful white-space licensing in the multipoint distribution and specialized mobile radio services. The cellular association added that the FCC could still reserve a small portion of unused TV frequencies for possible unlicensed use, subject to the outcome of ongoing government testing.
As an alternative, CTIA suggested the agency adopt a more limited fixed-licensing approach. Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc., the nation’s third and fourth largest mobile-phone operators, respectively, have voiced support for a fixed-licensing scheme for TV white spaces that would offer a less costly option for wireless backhaul services. FiberTower Corp. and Rural Telecommunications Group proposed doing just that in a filing last October.
It is unclear to what extent CTIA’s filing might influence a long-running debate that pits the well-heeled broadcasting and high-tech sectors against each other.
Back and forth
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who has faced congressional pressure to make TV whites spaces available for wireless services, last year told the Senate Commerce Committee that freeing up white spaces on an unlicensed basis would be far less complicated than licensing the idle frequencies.
Likewise, Google’s proposal might also muddy the waters because it is unclear whether high-tech firms — large and small alike — will endorse Motorola’s technology over a straightforward spectrum-sensing approach that may be less costly for vendors and ultimately consumers.
In its filing, Google told the FCC it believes Motorola’s technology “will eliminate any remaining legitimate concerns about the merits of using the white space for unlicensed personal/portable devices.”
The high-tech and TV-broadcasting sectors remain engaged in a high-stakes battle over whether potentially huge swatches of vacant TV airwaves — approximately 15 to 40 channels in the 210 TV markets after the digital transition ends in early 2009 — can be freed up for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed services. Broadcasters argue Wi-Fi deployment in white spaces could undermine the expensive transition to digital technology, flagging government testing last summer that found a Microsoft Corp. device interfered with TV reception. High-tech companies reply that other devices have passed muster in FCC testing to date, proving spectrum-sensing technology works just as it does with 5 GHz sharing between Wi-Fi users and military radar. High-tech firms brush off the Microsoft incident as a case of defective equipment.
The FCC is conducting a second round of testing on units supplied by Microsoft, Phillips Electronics and Adaptrum Inc. The agency could issue rules this summer, but new Google and CTIA proposal tends to make such a timetable appear ambitious.
Several House members previously wrote FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to urge a prompt resolution of technical issues and a final decision in the next few months. Still, a considerable number of lawmakers have expressed concerns about white-space device interference to digital TVs.
Google’s push
Richard Whitt, Washington telecom and media counsel for Google, told reporters he hoped to win support from high-tech companies and broadcasters for Wi-Fi in TV white spaces.
“While we continue to believe that spectrum sensing alone is more than sufficient to protect legitimate concerns of the broadcasters and wireless microphone communities, we are willing to go considerably farther in order to secure a positive outcome for all,” stated Whitt in a Google filing at the FCC. “The value of the TV white space to all Americans simply is too great to allow this unique opportunity to be blocked by unfounded fear, uncertainty and doubt.”
Google previously lobbied the FCC to include open-access stipulations on the recently auctioned 700 MHz spectrum. The FCC agreed to require the C Block winner — which turned out to be Verizon Wireless — to open the network to all suitable devices and applications. Google, however, was responsible for triggering the C Block’s open-access condition by meeting the $4.6 billion reserve price relatively early in the auction. Google was later outbid by Verizon Wireless.