Google Chases White Space

In a letter to the FCC, Google suggests opening the unused slices of spectrum between existing TV stations, which could create an opportunity for "Wi-Fi on steroids."

Following its failed bids for licenses in the recently-closed FCC 700MHz wireless spectrum auction (but an optimistic attitude toward the loss), Google has moved on to cracking open what it sees as the next frontier in wireless connectivity: white space. On Monday, the company released a letter to the FCC encouraging it to open up the unused “white space” between TV channels for private use.

“The vast majority of viable spectrum in this country simply goes unused, or else is grossly underutilised,” Google’s Richard Whitt wrote in the letter, according to BBC News. “Unlike other natural resources, there is no benefit to allowing this spectrum to lie fallow.”

Traditionally, the space between TV channels has been left unused to prevent interference with the closely bordering TV broadcasts, but Google claims new wireless technologies can eliminate the problem. Spectrum sensing, for instance, can ensure that only truly unused portions of the spectrum are ever used by monitoring existing broadcasts and feeling out holes.

Google hopes that open white space access would allow for a sort of “Wi-Fi on steroids,” providing wireless web access without the relatively limited range of current routers that use the 2.4GHz spectrum. The company even suggested an auction for the spaces, similar to the 700MHz auction it just participated in.

Although other companies have yet to weigh in on Google’s recent letter, plans to use white space have usually been opposed by current users of the space for continuing fear of interference. Other tech companies though, such as Microsoft and Dell, have generally supported such efforts in the past.