TV analog broadcasters are expected to vacate white space airwaves in February 2009 to switch to digital signals.
Google is part of a coalition of technology companies that has been lobbying the FCC to allow unlicensed use of white-space spectrum. The group also includes Microsoft Corp, Dell Inc, Intel Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and the north American unit of Philips Electronics.
By: Cathy Gottardi
May 22, 2008 23:47 PM GMT
Google's co-founder Larry Page spoke to Congress on Thursday to promote the company's proposal for next-gen white space spectrums to be used for wireless devices.
Page spoke with lawmakers in Congress and officials at the Federal Communications Commission hoping to convince them to allow the "white space" between television channels to be accessed by low-power wireless devices.
Page said making more spectrum available would benefit computer users, giving them Internet connections with greater range and speed.
"If we have 10 percent better connectivity in the U.S., we get 10 percent more revenue in the U.S., and those are big numbers for us," Page said.
Proponents of the mew class of Wi-Fi devices say the airwaves could eventually offer data transmission speeds of billions of bits per second -- far faster than the millions of bits per second available on most current broadband networks. Consumers could watch movies on wireless devices and do other things that are currently difficult on slower networks.
"I am totally confident that if we have rules that say you can use the spectrum under conditions that you cause no interference, that those devices will get produced. And, in fact, hundreds of millions of dollars will be invested in making those devices non-interfering," Page said.
Page's remarks were immediately disputed by the National Association of Broadcasters.
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