Fergie's Tech Blog

Microsoft Disputes FCC's Rejection of Web Devices That Use TV Airwaves

Kim Hart writes in The Washington Post:

Today Microsoft plans to try to convince regulators that it can connect consumers to high-speed Internet over unused television airwaves without interfering with existing broadcasts.

In a document that it plans to file today with the Federal Communications Commission, Microsoft disputes the agency's recent findings that prototype devices either interfered with TV signals or could not detect them to avoid interference. Microsoft's first prototype was defective, but the firm said another model worked successfully in a demonstration it gave to the FCC last week.

The filing is Microsoft's latest attempt to get FCC commissioners to approve a plan that would let a new generation of portable wireless devices connect to the Internet without relying on existing wireless carriers. The devices in question, which were designed and made by Microsoft, would use vacant TV airwaves, known as white space, to carry Internet service to homes and offices, including those in rural areas. The airwaves will be available when TV broadcasters move to digital signals in early 2009.

posted by Fergie @ 8/12/2007 07:35:00 PM