The Federal Communications Commission today issued a press release reinforcing its support for white space spectrum. It also said it has issued a public notice announcing that the Office of Engineering and Technology on Monday will launch a 45-day public trial of Spectrum (News - Alert) Bridge Inc.’s TV band database system. This comes a day after TMCnet posted a story about the white space industry’s distress about Congressional efforts to repackage TV channels that would result in significantly less available white space and fundamentally alter the economic model for equipment used in this spectrum.

The release quotes FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski saying: “Unleashing white spaces spectrum will enable a new wave of wireless innovation. It has the potential to exceed the billions of dollars in economic benefit from Wi-Fi, the last significant release of unlicensed spectrum, and drive private investment and job creation.” The release also states that the “result of white spaces innovation has already led to a wave of new consumer technologies, including Wi-Fi and other innovations like baby monitors and cordless phones that have generated billions in economic growth.”

As discussed in the March issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, as part of the white space effort, the FCC earlier mandated the creation of a database that wireless devices and networks can query to access, and prevent interference with, radios operating at these frequencies. The white space database(s) will provide a channel list providing the rights to transmit. The FCC previously conditionally approved nine database applicants. That includes Comsearch, Frequency Finder, Google (News - Alert), KB Enterprises and LS Telcom, Key Bridge Global, Neustar, Spectrum Bridge, Telcordia and WSdb. All of the above companies submitted proposals in response to an FCC order seeking interest around this.

The limited database trial involving Spectrum Bridge (News - Alert), as the FCC describes it in its press release issued today, “is intended to allow the public to access and test Spectrum Bridge’s database system to ensure that it correctly identifies channels that are available for unlicensed TV band devices, properly registers those facilities entitled to protection, and provides protection to authorized services and registered facilities as specified in the rules.”

The FCC also invites parties to participate in the trial by accessing Spectrum Bridge’s TV band database test facility at  http://whitespaces.spectrumbridge.com/Trial.aspx. During the trial, the commission says, participants are encouraged to test the channel availability calculator; the cable headend and broadcast auxiliary temporary receive site registration utilities; and the wireless microphone registration utility to ensure that each of these elements of the database system is working properly and providing the interference protection required under our rules.

Advocates of white space spectrum, which is found between 50mHz and 698mHz, say technology used in these frequencies could go a long way toward helping expand broadband to all Americans, could be used to build corporate networks (Microsoft (News - Alert) has already used white space spectrum to build a pilot network at its headquarters campus in Redmond, Wash.), to help deliver in-home applications including smart grid, and by wireless and wireline service providers that want to create new or fill in existing broadband networks.

Considering its broad prospective applications, Richard Shockey (News - Alert), who runs Shockey Consulting and is chairman of The SIP Forum, told me yesterday, the prospects of activities related to white space to create jobs and contribute to the wealth of our nation and world are significant.

But the bright future expected for white space is at risk given various bills and discussions that have arisen in the past few months. Perhaps the most prevalent is known as S.911, which the Senate Commerce Committee passed in June, according to the CommLawBlog.

Other potential threats to white space, according to Stephen Coran, an attorney with Rini Coran, include a discussion draft from the House majority of the Energy and Commerce Committee, a draft from the House minority, and language in the debt ceiling bill and the jobs plan President Obama discussed in his recent speech.

The problem is that such legislation talks about packing TV channels closer together. That means less white space between those channels. And while these efforts aren’t active moves against white space, but rather aimed at making more spectrum available for incentive auctions that could provide the federal government with new funds, white space would nonetheless be “collateral damage,” Coran said.

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