Low-power TV stations serving niches could cede airwaves to Wi-Fi

In the invisible spaces between the broadcast channels on your TV dial, a battle is brewing. As part of an effort to expand access to broadband Internet, Google and Microsoft are butting heads with the nation’s thousands of low-power television broadcasters, all jockeying for the same slivers of wireless spectrum.

The Internet and television industries are grappling over how portions of unused spectrum, commonly dubbed “white space,” should be put to use in the wake of a seismic upheaval of the TV spectrum landscape. At stake, broadcasters and their advocates say, is the future of low-power television, a class of TV operators who beam a wide variety of religious, ethnically diverse and hyper-local programming over the air. But setting themselves against the prospect of faster, more reliable Wi-Fi service, experts say, will be a steep uphill fight. “The balance here is trying to maintain some sort of local broadcasting versus what’s coming next, and what’s coming next is wireless” Internet, said Jonathan Kramer a telecommunications attorney. “The value of having high-speed Internet at home is likely far more valuable than simply access to a local station.”