In a document that Microsoft intends to file with the Federal Communications Commission, the company disputes the FCC’s finding that prototype Internet devices produced static on existing broadcasts.
In testing conducted earlier this month, engineers from the Office of Engineering and Technology division of the FCC found that “the sample prototype White Space Devices submitted to the Commission for initial evaluation do not consistently sense or detect TV broadcast or wireless microphone signals” and that “the transmitter in the prototype device is capable of causing interference to TV broadcasting and wireless microphones.”
Following the FCC’s test, Dennis Wharton, the executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters and opponent of Microsoft’s plan for the vacant analog space, said that the test “confirm[ed] what NAB, MSTV and others have long contended: that the portable, unlicensed devices proposed by high-tech firms can’t make the transition from theory to actuality without compromising interference-free TV reception.”
Microsoft conceded that its initial device failed to meet the FCC’s requirements, but maintained that a second prototype that was delivered for testing last week performed much better.
According to the Post, in the filing that Microsoft will submit to the FCC today, the company stated that the new prototype “reliably detected occupied TV channels,” and hinted that upcoming enhancements to the prototype should eradicate interference with wireless microphones, as well.
The coalition of tech companies, which also includes Dell, Earthlink, Google, HP, Intel, Philips and Samsung, has been encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to permit wireless Internet applications to make use of what will soon be vacant analog space since late last year, when Congress first decided to do away with analog broadcast TV in the U.S.
Under the timetable proposed by the U.S. Congress, February 2009 will mark the end of the broadcast of analog TV signals, which fall between 54MHz and 698MHz. The companies in the coalition assert that, among other things, the vacant TV airwaves could be used to provide Internet access deep into rural areas — which potentially could expand significantly the U.S. market for online adult entertainment — and force Internet access providers to reduce their prices in order to compete with lower-cost wireless analog services.
The FCC will meet Thursday to review Microsoft’s proposal and to review its new prototype device.
In addition to the performance of the new prototype, the FCC also will need to balance the concerns of some within the telecommunications industry, including cable-TV operators and phone carriers, who worry that the performance of their own wireless technologies will suffer if unlicensed wireless devices are permitted to operate within the same broadcast spectrum.
Wharton said that he’s confident that the FCC’s report on Microsoft’s prototype wireless technology was accurate, and asserted that Microsoft’s “self-serving” agenda could jeopardize “America’s access to interference-free TV reception.”
