FCC Makes Key White Spaces Call, Though Concerns Remain

Four months after the FCC approved final white spaces rules Sept. 23, the Office of Engineering and Technology said nine companies have been selected as geolocation database providers. The order was announced quietly, compared to the fanfare that marked the September order. But it marks a critical step toward the sale of the first devices designed to use the TV band to surf the Internet.

Companies designated by OET include high-tech heavyweight Google, Neustar and Comsearch, which already offer other registry services, and Spectrum Bridge, which runs online spectrum auctions. Other companies named are KB Enterprises, LS Telecom, Key Bridge Global, Telcordia and WSdb.

Industry executives told us prior to release of the order that until the FCC blessed one or more databases, equipment makers would be unlikely to move ahead on white spaces devices. Even with the approval, many questions remain, especially about how an incentive auction of TV spectrum would affect the white spaces. Industry sources said Thursday chip makers like Intel and other high tech companies remain concerned about how the repacking of the TV band could affect the viability of the white spaces.

The FCC also still must release database rules. In addition, the Association of Maximum Service Television and NAB filed a challenge to the 2008 white spaces order still pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the FCC has before it various petitions for reconsideration of the September order.

"I'm delighted to see the commission take an important step to try to get the power of the white spaces into the hands of American consumers,” Commissioner Robert McDowell told us Thursday. “We still have some work to do and I hope it will be done as quickly as possible."

Selection of multiple database administrators “helps provide competitive checks and balances to this new frontier,” McDowell said. “Taking this important step now will help spur innovation and speed the process of placing this highly valued spectrum into the hands of American consumers. Completing the commission’s work on white spaces as soon as possible would have the added benefit of helping to alleviate congestion on wireless networks without having to wait for the longer term incentive auction process."

Rick Kaplan, chief counsel to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said the FCC remains committed to providing spectrum for unlicensed use. “Voluntary incentive auctions would be a boon for unlicensed as well as licensed uses, because they would enable the commission to free up critical spectrum to meet the great demands of mobile broadband,” Kaplan said.

"This doesn’t resolve all the remaining questions, especially about interoperability in the 700 MHz band, but it nonetheless goes a long way towards allowing effective use of TV white spaces,” said Andrew Schwartzman, senior vice president of the Media Access Project.

With the order, “we finally get the ball rolling in earnest on white spaces technology,” said Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld. “This provides the basis for the next generation in cognitive radio technology. It also provides a valuable tool for rural areas to provision themselves."

But Sasha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, remains cautious. Approval of companies as database managers “does not even come close to closing the book on the white spaces proceeding,” Meinrath said. “The final step will be when the FCC sets technical specifications both for the geolocation databases and for sensing-alone devices.” Meinrath said the order was only a “baby step forward” by the FCC. “In essence, we now know who will be overseeing the geolocational database, but we still do not know what the geolocational database will consist of, how determinations of occupied and available frequencies will be made, and a whole host of key information that is needed before these technologies are viable,” he said.

NAB has continuing concerns about the white spaces order, said spokesman Dennis Wharton. “The exclusive use of database techniques for interference control is largely uncharted territory in spectrum regulation and full of practical challenges,” he said. “It’s critical that the transition of this technique from theory to practice doesn’t result in interference that prevents consumers from receiving free television broadcasts."

"My sense is FCC Chairman Genachowski was anxious to complete regulatory work on white spaces -- a key component of his spectrum agenda -- but didn’t want to move on the geolocation database front until he and his staff were comfortable that a solid framework was in place that increases the chances of success in the marketplace,” said Jeff Silva, analyst at Medley Global Advisors. “It remains unclear how any repacking of reallocated TV spectrum will impact the evolution of the whites spaces market, since there are a number of moving parts -- technical, economic, policy and political -- implicated in how the effort to free up TV spectrum via incentive auctions might ultimately materialize.”