• Bloomberg News, Monday, December 10, 2007 10:45 AM

Google's interest in wireless spectrum extends well-beyond bidding in next month's FCC auction. Last week, the search giant showed the governmental agency two experimental technologies that could potentially free up unused TV airwaves for wireless Internet access. These so-called "white spaces" are located between TV channels. Google described its technologies as "amply" protecting against any signal disturbances that could be caused by using the white spaces.

Google isn't the first big company to propose a way to use white spaces. Both Microsoft Corp. and Royal Philips Electronics tested similar technologies and submitted their results to the FCC earlier this year. The three companies are a part of the White Spaces Coalition, a group that's lobbying to have the airwaves opened for licensing in 2009, after broadcasters are forced to convert to digital signals.

Broadcasters, meanwhile, say their spectrum-sensing technologies might cause digital TV screens to freeze. In a recent letter to the FCC, Walt Disney Company Chief Bob Iger said that white-spaces technology isn't yet "at a stage where it would effectively prevent interference in the television band." Iger was not specifically talking about Google's technology, however.

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