FCC may auction off unused TV airwaves
Last Wednesday (10/15/08), the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin, proposed opening up unused portions of the television airwaves for wireless broadband services.
Supporters of the plan claim that television airwaves offer an advantage over traditional cellular broadcast methods because they can ”penetrate walls”, transmit more information (bandwidth), and travel over a broader area of land.
Interestingly enough, a recent article on Yahoo mentions the following about the Martin plan,
Martin issued his proposal ahead of the official release of a technical report by FCC engineers concluding that potential interference could be eliminated with the use of wireless transmitter devices that rely on spectrum-sensing and “geo-location” technologies to detect and avoid nearby broadcast signals.
Martin’s plan also includes a condition which would force the winning bidder to agree to offer a free, nationwide Internet service. The proposal has been met with opposition from wireless carriers who argue that the use of television airwaves for broadband service would interfere with existing cellular broadband services.
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