Google Champing at Bit for Multichannel White Spaces Devices

STANFORD, Calif. -- TV white spaces represent a great chance to develop all kinds of other opportunistic broadband uses of spectrum -- in other bands, licensed and unlicensed, and abroad, a Google executive said. The company is eager for the FCC to certify devices and allow the work to go ahead, Larry Alder, co-leader of Google’s alternative-access group, said late Tuesday.

The big challenge in the white spaces is preventing out-of-band emissions, Alder said at a workshop on the Programmable Open Mobile Internet 2020 project, held as part of the Stanford Computer Forum’s annual meeting. “A front-end radio” that can transmit on multiple available TV bands at once, within the emission limits, would be “very cool,” he said. “We're not building a radio ourselves that does that,” but “some amplifier companies have some interesting devices,” Alder said. Google’s focus in devices is on Android phones, but it’s eager to spur along the “opportunistic device” and will get involved as much as the company thinks it can help, he said.

Net neutrality will apply to wireless if “consumers demand it,” Alder said. “I think increasingly they are.” He said he foresees a world in which users can use the devices and applications they want. When asked, Alder added the network of their choice. But “I can’t begin to think about” how this world will be brought about, he said.

"Openness has got a lot of momentum now,” since the 700 MHz auction, Alder said. Some wireless carriers have embraced it more than others, he said. Alder singled out particularly warmly Clearwire, an executive of which gave a presentation just before his, as supporting the policy.

There’s confusion about Google’s plans to build a fiber testbed, a company executive acknowledged. “We aren’t building a national ISP,” Alder said. The company also isn’t going to offer pay TV or phone service, provide access without charge or seek financial support from the government, he said. “The tough job” for Google “is to select the city” where the fiber network will be built, Alder said. Google received 1,100 expressions of interest but plans to build out only a city of 50,000-500,000 people, or possibly “a few,” he said. Many of the requests came from towns smaller than the company had specified.

"Drawing attention” to the importance of broadband fiber is as important as the network itself, Alter said. Google hopes its test will help identify a “killer app” for ultra high-speed access and will keep the network open to encourage innovation, he said. The company also seeks new construction techniques and use cases, Alder said. A major yardstick of the effort’s success will be whether the project catalyzes “other people” to make similar efforts, he said.

"Occasionally, we do something crazy” like this “to move the ball forward,” Alder said, saying “there’s really no limit to how crazy we can be.” He encouraged technologists to offer Google far-out proposals.