Google's 'white spaces' bandwagon becomes a wagon train

The Google-driven WIA's efforts in advocating "white spaces" devices have been joined by two heavyweight industry coalitions: the BSA, which includes Apple; and the CCIA, which claims Linux distributor Red Hat as a member.

One week after Larry Page's FCC lobbying appearance in Washington, Google and its existing partners picked up more clout today in their fight to "unlock the unused white spaces" of the wireless spectrum. The Wireless Innovation Alliance's (WIA) campaign was officially joined by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) open systems advocacy group, and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) anti-piracy group.

Google, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and other partners have been petitioning the FCC to open up the unused parts of the television spectrum, but against fierce opposition from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the wireless microphone industry.

Along with WIAA members Microsoft and HP, the newly added BSA includes Apple, Intel, IBM, EMC, Cisco, and more than 20 other software vendors, many of them household names.

The CCIA -- which has members that include Red Hat, the Open Source Software Foundation, and Intuit, for example -- is a self-described group of computer, Internet and telecom companies promoting "open markets, open systems, open networks, and full, fair, and open competition."

The addition of the BSA and CCIA to the campaign comes just Google co-founder Larry Page made a second lobbying appearance before the FCC. That appearance came the day after Google helped T-Mobile and HTC to launch the G1, the industry's first Android-enabled phone.

Page asked the FCC last week to issue a final order for free access to the white spaces by election day in early November -- only a couple of weeks after T-Mobile expects to start selling commercial 3G services for its Android-based G1 phone.

Meanwhile, white space device advocates have run into trouble in two tests undertaken with the intent of proving that their wireless gear won't interfere with TV broadcasting equipment or wireless microphones.

In March of this year, after Microsoft admitted a device made by its partner Metric Systems Corp. had "experienced an apparent power issue" in FCC testing, Google proposed Android as an alternative to Windows Mobile for use in the white spaces.

Page also took time during last week's trip to Washington to elaborate on an FCC filing made in August by members of the White Spaces Coalition -- a sister group to the WIA -- in attepts to explain why their white spaces devices failed to detect wireless microphones in later FCC field tests, held this summer.

"Larry addressed the ways in which TV broadcasters and wireless microphone companies have unfortunately injected politics into the FCC's testing process, referring to August tests at FedEx Field just outside of D.C. and at the Majestic Theater in New York City. Those tests were intended to assess whether white space device prototypes could sense the presence of wireless microphone signals," contended Richard Whitt, Google's Washington telecom and media counsel, in a blog post.

"However, actions suggest that wireless microphone operators actually transmitted not on their normal channels but instead on channels occupied by TV broadcast signals. For instance, during the FedEx Field test, wireless microphones were improperly used on the very station that carried the broadcast of the game. As a result, the white spaces devices naturally could not detect the microphone signals, as they were hidden by the much more powerful TV signals."

Separately this week, the CCIA issued a position statement backing RealNetworks in a lawsuit being waged by the Motion Picture Association of America, charging that the company's RealDVD software violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by bypassing the copyright protection built into DVDs.