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NEWS

"Microsoft Pushes Unlicensed Spectrum Carve-Out"

by John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable, 7 March:

"A Microsoft executive was in Washington Tuesday making the company's pitch that Congress set aside some of the 'white space' spectrum between TV channels in the broadcast band for smart radios and other unlicensed wireless devices.

"In a hearing on rural telecommunications in the Senate Commerce Committee, Craig Mundie, chief technical officer, advanced strategies and policy, for the computer giant, argued that opening up the broadcast band to unlicensed devices would be a lower-cost alternative to expensive last-mile broadband hookups, particularly in remote areas (like Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens' home state of Alaska). As Mundie has told the committee previously, unlicensed technologies translate to high-speed data at a relatively low price. [Click here for Mundie's prepared testimony.]

"One reason that the price is low is that the cost of entry is much less for services that operate in unlicensed spectrum than for, say, traditional wireless companies, who had to put up big bucks for spectrum licenses in FCC auctions.

"Senator George Allen (R-Va.), who has introduced a bill to allow unlicensed devices in broadcast spectrum, also pointed to the low price, as well as to the fact that wireless more efficiently bridges distances... and requires less digging up of city streets.

"Saying Microsoft recognized the interference concerns of broadcasters, Mundie pointed out that the company supported rules that address that concern..."

[WLAN: 11 March 2006]