• May 23, 2008

Google co-founder Larry Page met with Federal Communications Commission officials and lawmakers this week to urge them to make more "white space" available for high-speed wireless Internet connections.

Specifically, Google is asking the FCC to allow wireless Internet devices to connect to "white space," or the broadcast spectrum that's unused by TV.

Google argues that such connections will not interfere with television, but not everyone agrees. Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters, warned against the plan. "Jeopardizing the future of digital television with an unproven technology would be unwise and unwarranted," Wharton said, according to Reuters.

The Association for Maximum Service Television, a technical association for the television broadcasting industry, also blasted Google's proposal. "Interference is always the issue whenever you try to 'share' spectrum," the group said in a statement.

--Wendy Davis