Microsoft Wants to Take Over US “White Spaces”

Microsoft is getting ready for the the new and powerful wireless Internet networks on unused television airwaves – the “white space” in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“White spaces” are frequencies that have been given to a broadcasting service but remained unused locally.

Two or three years after the FCC finalizes its rules for the use of "white-spaces" TV spectrum, devices that use it could become widely available for consumers, says Dan Reed, Microsoft's corporate vice president for technology strategy and policy.

Some assume that the company is developing basic blueprints for white-spaces devices than can include laptops and mobile phones, but all that Reed says is “we're certainly in discussions about standardizing hardware specifications for white spaces.”

Still, according to the WSJ, it is rather unlikely that Microsoft is going to develop its own white-spaces devices instead of following its usual policy, which is turning to its hardware partners.

“That's our expectation, that that will continue to be the case,” said Reed, according to TMCnet.

If we believe CNET News, Microsoft has been testing new technology using the white-spaces spectrum on its campus in Redmond, Washington.

The wireless networks was built using only two base stations to transmit the signals via the white spaces spectrum, and theses signals traveled at least three times further than signals transmitted over other unlicensed spectrum, such as WiFi.

This means that the white-spaces spectrum covers a distance nine times larger that the one covered by WiFi, because it has a much lower frequency ans it can pass across buildings easier.

The FCC should finish establishing the rules for use of the white-spaces spectrum on September 23, 2010, at its open meeting.

After this date, Microsoft, as well as Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Motorola should launch white spaces devices.