[opendtv] Google's Page: White spaces test was unfair
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:32:22 -0400
http://www.itworld.com/mobile-amp-wireless/55330/googles-page-white-spaces-test-was-unfair
Google's Page: White spaces test was unfair
by Grant Gross
September 24, 2008, 05:04 PM - IDG News Service -
Google cofounder Larry Page blasted as unfair recent interference
tests of prototype devices that would deliver wireless broadband on
unused television spectrum.
The tests, conducted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission,
measured interference with the wrong signals, Page said Wednesday.
The tests attempted to measure interference with wireless microphones
during a professional football game in Maryland, but those
microphones were operating on spectrum also occupied by much stronger
TV signals, said Page, speaking at a Washington, D.C., rally to
promote the use of so-called white spaces spectrum.
The protocol devices would be designed to operate in the white
spaces, spectrum designated for television stations but unused. It
would be "impossible" for the white spaces prototype to detect the
weak signal that a wireless microphone puts out when a much more
powerful TV station is using the same spectrum, Page said.
"There's no way to do that," he said. "You're going to detect the
television station, not the wireless microphone. What I'm telling you
is, the test was rigged."
Asked if he thought the FCC rigged the test, Page said he did not. He
didn't elaborate on who rigged the test, but one possible implication
is that the wireless microphone maker did. The National Association
of Broadcasters and wireless microphone makers have opposed new
white-spaces devices, saying there's a significant possibility of
interference with their signals.
Some mobile phone carriers have also opposed opening up white spaces
spectrum to new broadband devices. That spectrum could compete with
mobile service on spectrum that carriers paid billions of dollars
for. The arguments over the white spaces have grown increasingly
heated in recent months.
Page called for the FCC to approve the use of the white spaces for
broadband devices before November's presidential and congressional
elections. And he suggested that the FCC was putting white spaces
devices through a more rigorous testing process than it has with
other devices. Generally, the FCC allows new unlicensed devices to be
built and to operate in areas designated for unlicensed devices as
long as they don't interfere with other devices, Page said.
"There's nobody in the world who can truthfully tell you there's no
way to produce a device that doesn't interfere," Page said. "That's
just garbage -- not true."
An FCC spokesman didn't immediately return a message asking for
comment on Page's statement.
But Shure, a maker of wireless microphones, disputed Page's
description of the FCC's August test in Landover, Maryland.
"The FCC's wireless microphone field tests were carefully planned and
thoroughly executed based on sound engineering science and real-world
operating scenarios," said Mark Brunner, Shure's senior director for
public and industry relations. "These tests were open to the public,
and those who choose to discount the results -- which have not yet
been published -- had every option to be present and to witness them
for themselves."
As Page spoke at the Wireless Innovation Alliance's event in a U.S.
Senate office building, two members of the House of Representatives
issued a statement calling for the FCC to protect wireless microphone
signals.
The FCC tests so far have not proven that white-spaces broadband
devices can work, said the statement from Representative Jim Cooper,
a Tennessee Democrat, and Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat. In a
handful of recent FCC tests, white-spaces prototype devices have
failed, but generally because the devices stopped working, not
because the devices interfered with TV stations or wireless
microphones.
"This is an issue that can only be resolved through science and,
frankly, the tests performed by the FCC in its own labs and in the
field have not proved that these white space devices can reliably
detect the presence of a wireless microphone or a TV signal," the two
lawmakers said in their joint statement. "We can all agree that FCC
policy should foster innovation and encourage the efficient use of
public airwaves, but new changes must not come at the expense of
wireless microphones, which provide an important public good."
In addition to Page, representatives of Microsoft, Motorola, Dell and
other companies spoke at the white spaces event. Allowing broadband
devices on the white spaces spectrum would spark hundreds of millions
of dollars in new technology investment and may present the last
chance the U.S. has for creating a new national broadband network
that competes with cable and telecom companies, participants said.
Representative Jay Inslee, a Washington state Democrat, said
opponents of white spaces are interested in protecting their turf.
"If you are for innovation, you are for the white spaces," he said.
The technology exists to use white spaces devices without interfering
with other signals, added Mark McHenry, CEO of Shared Spectrum, a
company that sells spectrum-sensing radio technology to the U.S.
military. Shared Spectrum's radio equipment allows the U.S. military
to set up wireless networks in other countries without interfering
with local television, he said.
The company is "convinced" that white spaces devices can work without
interfering in the U.S., he said.
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