When a group of companies with a combined market value of nearly $1 trillion decides it wants a favor from the federal government, it shouldn’t have trouble making quick time of the opposition.

Such a super-wealthy group is the White Spaces Coalition, formed by the likes of Google, Microsoft, Intel, Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Their goal is to provide advanced wireless communications services on vacant TV channels without having to secure licenses from the FCC at auction.

But the alliance of deep-pocketed technology giants has fallen far short of instant success, mainly because its quest for access to highly valuable radio waves has clashed with the interests of the country’s 1,756 full-power TV stations.

The White Spaces Coalition’s chief obstacle has been the National Association of Broadcasters, a formidable trade group that by reputation probably has $1 trillion in political value on the line, if clout in the nation’s capital can be translated into dollars.

NAB’s power stems from the fact that thousands of radio and TV stations have been key suppliers of electronic news in every state and congressional district for decades. As candidates for elective office who rely heavily on TV and radio to reach voters, members of Congress understand broadcasters’ unique power to influence the public mind. Except for the very brave, lawmakers do not cross the NAB with impunity.

For the past two years, the NAB has been trying to derail a proposal by the White Spaces Coalition that would allow anyone to use airwaves allocated to broadcast TV but not being used by any TV station.

The vacant TV space could be used to transmit video, documents, text messages and other digital content, wirelessly, to and between handheld devices.

According to the New America Foundation, which supports the White Spaces Coalition, 52% of the TV channels in Las Vegas are unused; 40% in Dallas, Texas; and 30% in Trenton, N.J. ...

Since each channel represents 6 Megahertz of spectrum, Las Vegas would have about 150 MHz for unlicensed operations. The FCC is planning to auction 60 MHz of similar spectrum in January, with revenue expected to exceed $10 billion.

The NAB insists that sharing the broadcast band would imperil over-the-air television because signal interference would be rampant and unstoppable, as unlicensed users wouldn’t have to answer to anyone — including the FCC. ...

This current spectrum-use fight might be the first of many in the years ahead for the NAB. The fundamental problem for TV stations is that they have nearly exclusive access to some of the most prized spectrum in the FCC’s inventory; their use of it is highly inefficient; and the number of U.S. homes that rely exclusively on free, over-the-air TV is small and shrinking.

According to the NAB, 19 million out of 110 million U.S. TV households rely exclusively on free TV. The Consumer Electronics Association’s estimate is much lower, at between 11 million and 13 million.

“[Regulators] will increasingly question why this nation is setting aside tens of billions of dollars of spectrum for maybe less than 10% of the people when it all could be consolidated over satellite bands or cable,” said Michael Calabrese, vice president and director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation. Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt is a New America board member. ...

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