Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., asked the FCC to field test beacons...
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., asked the FCC to field test beacons before it mandates their use to protect wireless microphones from interference by devices surfing the Internet using TV white spaces. Motorola has submitted a beacon device to the…
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!
FCC, but the agency has not committed to field or lab tests of the technology. “My most fundamental concern about beacons is that, to my knowledge, no one has ever seen one --not in the laboratory, not at the Commission, and certainly not on the Las Vegas Strip,” wrote Berkley, who represents Las Vegas. “How a ‘coming attraction’ device can be considered an interference protection solution without any laboratory or field testing requires a leap of faith I am unable to take … Any such device must be thoroughly tested to determine if the beacon can accomplish what sensing technology failed to do in terms of protecting broadcast and professional wireless microphone operation.” Beacon tests are possible, an FCC spokesman said Friday. “We received beacons from Motorola and Adaptrum only recently,” he said. “We are studying the proposed characteristics, and are considering what tests, if any, may be useful to further inform the record.”