White Spaces Test More Time-Consuming than Predicted
FCC tests of gear for showing that devices can access the Internet using TV white spaces without causing broadcasters harmful interference are taking longer than expected. They continue after six weeks. The FCC hasn’t set a timetable or added information about field tests. Those are to begin after bench tests end at the commission’s Columbia, Md., lab.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The FCC is “making progress,” but it’s “not out of the ordinary to extend the testing period,” an FCC official said Thursday, calling the testing “a priority.” In January, the Office of Engineering and Technology announced a sped-up test schedule. Bench tests begun Jan. 24 were to run “approximately four to six weeks,” with field testing to “immediately follow the bench testing,” the OET said. The FCC promised an open process, and anyone can watch the tests (CD Jan 25 p2).
Testing should be done “as expeditiously as practical,” but not “concluded just for the sake of conclusion,” former OET chief Ed Thomas told us. He represents Microsoft and other high-tech companies that favor opening the white spaces to use by unlicensed portable devices. Thomas’ clients hope for an FCC decision before summer so white spaces devices get to store shelves for the 2009 holiday season, he said.
“The laboratory is doing the right thing,” Thomas said. “They're on a data acquisition bent. They're going to accumulate a lot of data using all the equipment they were provided… and then they're going to digest that data and decide what rules they support.” NAB and Maximum Service TV did not respond by our deadline.