• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 27, 2008

More lawmakers are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to delay voting on whether to allow white spaces to be used for wireless broadband.

Late last week, Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) joined nine other elected officials who recently expressed concerns about the FCC's upcoming vote, scheduled for Nov. 4.

The FCC is slated to decide whether to allow people to harness vacant airwaves in the TV spectrum, without licenses, for wireless broadband.

Backers of the plan, including tech companies like Google and organizations like Free Press, say the proposal will result in more people having access to broadband. Radio airwaves are powerful enough to transmit signals through walls and across large areas, which should make it easier to blanket an area with wireless broadband by using white spaces than the less powerful Wi-Fi spectrum.

But TV broadcasters say that using white spaces for broadband access could interfere with television signals.

Recently, the FCC said that testing showed that white spaces could be used for wireless computing without causing interference with TV, provided that spectrum sensing and geo-location techniques were deployed. Lawmakers, TV companies and other users of the airwaves, however, are raising questions about those tests.

In a letter to the FCC dated Friday, Dingell--chairman of the House energy and commerce committee--posed a series of pointed questions about the agency's plans. Among other questions, Dingell asked whether the report that the FCC is relying on was peer-reviewed. He also questioned how the FCC plans to address interference if it occurs.

"Facilitating the delivery of more and better broadband services to all Americans is of utmost importance to me, and it should be a top priority of the Commission," Dingell wrote. "It is equally important to me, as it should also be to the Commission, that free, over-the-air television signals be adequately protected from harmful interference."

Martinez also sent the FCC a letter last week asking that the agency delay voting on the proposal. "It appears that additional time and more thorough deliberation should be allowed for consideration of this proposal," he wrote. Those letters were in addition to similar requests last week made by a bipartisan coalition of eight Congress members, and a separate one authored by Rep. Bobby Rush.

The New York City Council also chimed in last week, unanimously (51-0) passing a resolution calling on the FCC to postpone its vote.

In New York, Broadway theaters have used wireless microphones on the white space spectrum--without first obtaining licenses--for the last three decades. Theater organizations say they are afraid that allowing companies to offer broadband via white spaces will interfere with their wireless microphones.

The National Association of Broadcasters has been lobbying vigorously against the plan, as have TV networks. Last week, heads of all four major networks complained to the FCC about the scheduled vote.

Advocates of the plan also have some high-profile supporters, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Last week, he telephoned FCC Chair Kevin Martin and commissioner Michael Copps to urge them to approve the plan.

FCC spokesperson Robert Kenny said Friday that a vote is still scheduled for Nov. 4.