• Reuters, Friday, May 23, 2008 12:03 PM

Larry Page went to Washington yesterday to promote Google's plan to operate a new generation of wireless devices over the so-called white spaces that exist between broadcast television channels. The Google co-founder highlighted the benefits of making white spaces available to low-power wireless devices, saying it would give consumers Web connections with greater range and speed. "If we have 10% better connectivity in the U.S., we get 10% more revenue in the U.S., and those are big numbers for us," Page said, adding: "I think it will make a huge difference to everybody."

He worried, however, that the debate's been too "politicized" by organizations such as the National Association of Broadcasters, which worries that the use of white spaces would disrupt their broadcast signals. The FCC has been testing equipment to see whether the white space spectrum can be used without interfering with TV broadcasts. Most of that equipment has failed, but Page said he was "totally confident" the problems with interference could be overcome.

Google, Microsoft, Dell, Intel, HP and Philips Electronics make up part of a coalition of tech companies that's lobbying the FCC for use of the white spaces. Proponents say the airwaves could eventually offer data transmission speeds of billions of bits per second compared to most broadband networks today, which offer transmission speeds of millions of bits per second. The white spaces would become available in February 2009, when TV broadcasters switch from analog to digital broadcast signals.

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