Open Spectrum

...[T]he soft-spoken and baby-faced Page met with key lawmakers including House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and policy makers at the Federal Communications Commission to push an idea to use empty television broadcast spectrum, called white spaces, for high-speed wireless connections by anyone, anywhere in the U.S. That spectrum will be freed up with the conversion of analog to digital television in February 2009. "There's a huge opportunity to make this stuff work," Page said in a discussion… more

...Page spoke in the morning at an event hosted by theWashington think tank, the New America Foundation. He emphasized that opening up the white space spectrum for unlicensed use could have a huge impact on the U.S. economy and economies throughout the world, if other countries adopted similar spectral policy. He also said that it made little sense for the U.S. to allow this resource to go unused.

"Spectrum isn't like water," he said. "If you don't use it, it's gone.… more

The U.S. government should explore ways to conduct real-time auctions of its vast, and often unused, wireless spectrum holdings, with agencies holding spectrum to get the profits from the sales, Google cofounder Larry Page said Thursday.

Page, speaking in Washington, D.C., repeated Google's position that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission should allow unlicensed wireless devices to access unused spectrum held by television stations.… more

[Google] Co-Founder Larry Page this week made an unprecedented appeal to policy makers for access to unused television airwaves.

Page made his first trip to Washington, D.C., Wednesday and Thursday to meet with members of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission.

Speaking at a public event Thursday, Page said the unused airwaves, dubbed… more

In an event hosted by New America Foundation, "... Page argued that opening up vacant TV spectrum after the February 2009 switch to digital TV will help to spread broadband as well as boost Google's bottom line, calling opening up the white spaces "the most important thing the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] can do this year to promote broadband deployment and tech-sector innovation..." LINK

With Google, Larry Page has gone a long way toward achieving the audacious goal he and co-founder Sergey Brin set for the company: "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible."

One of his current goals is equally ambitious: making the Internet itself accessible, anywhere and anytime, through pervasive and affordable wireless broadband networks. Page has helped lead Google's efforts over the past year to pry open both unused TV airwaves and closed cellular networks to promote… more

...Google proposes setting aside three channels for their exclusive use plus incorporating beacons into the microphones that would send a clear, definitive signal warning all other devices to stay out of its spectrum.

But some high-tech companies fear that Google’s proposal might prompt the FCC to drop its investigation into spectrum sensing technology and therefore eliminate a large part of the potential market for white space devices. “The problem is that requiring geo-location and Internet access makes devices more expensive, and it effectively prohibits a number of applications… more

San Jose Mercury News | Auction Takes 'First Step' to Open-Access Wireless

. . . Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, said Verizon's ability to subsidize certain handsets gives it enormous market power in determining which devices and applications will ultimately become popular with consumers.

But Calabrese said the auction did help achieve the goals of increased openness and innovation. "We need to extend these consumer protections, but this was an important first… more

Chairman Kevin Martin Federal Communications Commission 445 Twelfth Street, SW Washington, DC 20554

Re: Service Rules for the 698-746, 747-762, and 777-792 MHz Bands WT Docket No. 06-150 Implementing a Nationwide, Broadband, Interoperable Public Safety Network in the 700 MHz Band PD Docket No. 06-229

Dear Chairman Martin:

Marlene H. Dortch Secretary Federal Communications Commission 445 Twelfth Street, SW Washington, DC 20554

Re: Notice of Oral Ex Parte Presentation in OET Docket No. 04-186