Google proposes FCC open up 'white space'

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 25 (UPI) -- California's Google Inc. asked the Federal Communications Commission to open up television's "white space" to create a fast, new information delivery system.

In a six-page letter to the FCC, Google attorney Rick Whitt argued that white space -- the unused portion of the television broadcast spectrum -- was an untapped resource.

Whitt said allowing companies to use the spectrum is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband access to all Americans," the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

Whitt said using the space would be a "safe harbor" for wireless microphones and said new technology allowed the space to be used without disrupting television broadcasts.

But Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters disagreed. Mobile devices "continue to be a guaranteed recipe for producing interference," he said.

Whitt said use of the white space would encourage competition. "What works well for us, works well for consumers," he said.

Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel and others major technology companies have also expressed interest in the unused portion of the television broadcast spectrum, the report said.