Microsoft Challenges FCC on White Space

The Redmond-based company claims its devices designed to use unused portions of the TV broadcast spectrum don't interefere with other signals.

Microsoft prepared to challenge the Federal Communications Commission on Monday over whether TV airwaves could be used to offer computer users wireless Internet without interfering with other broadcasts. The FCC rejected Microsoft’s first prototype of a wireless Internet device, but the company has since said that it was defective, and that the newest version it has provided the FCC has fixed all problems.

The software goliath disputes the FCC’s claim that signals carried in unused portions of the TV broadcast radio spectrum interfere with the quality of existing broadcasts. The first prototype they provided the commission wasn’t able to effectively detect existing broadcasts, and did cause fuzz on nearby channels.

All TV channels will move to digital signals in 2009, leaving old frequencies between 54MHz and 698MHz – known as white space – dead. A band of tech companies including Google, Microsoft and Intel are rallying to use this white space as a long-range way for digital devices to communicate wirelessly.