• by Wendy Davis , October 22, 2008

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has personally reached out to the Federal Communications Commission to support a plan to use vacant radio airwaves for wireless broadband.

The former Microsoft chair telephoned FCC Chair Kevin Martin and Commissioner Michael Copps to voice his support for the plan and to urge that a scheduled vote go forward on Nov. 4, according to a document filed with the FCC this week.

Microsoft and Google have been among the most vocal companies backing a plan to use vacant radio airwaves for wireless broadband. Web access advocates like Free Press also support the plan, arguing that the white space spectrum will spur growth of wireless computing. The airwaves used for television transmit through walls and over large areas, so advocates expect it will be easier to blanket an area with wireless broadband by using white spaces than the less powerful Wi-Fi spectrum.

Much of the radio airwave spectrum will become available in February, when TV stations stop broadcasting on analog airwaves.

The FCC last week issued a report concluding that the white space spectrum could be used for broadband without interfering with TV signals, provided that spectrum sensing and geo-location techniques were deployed.

But TV networks and the National Association of Broadcasters oppose the white spaces proposal. They dispute the FCC's interpretation of the test results and say that allowing the use of white spaces for broadband would interfere with TV signals. The broadcast groups on Monday filed an emergency request asking the FCC to delay a vote on the proposal until at least next January.

The NAB and other opponents also filed additional papers with the FCC on Wednesday, accusing some advocates of the white spaces plan of actually advancing an agenda of destroying over-the-air television.

"Certain white spaces proponents have made no secret of their antipathy--indeed, hostility--towards the public's television service," wrote the broadcast group.

Free Press's policy director Ben Scott said his organization had no such antipathy to television, adding that Free Press had advocated for years for policies that would benefit local over-the-air stations.