Google, Tech Giants Form White Spaces Tech Group

Despite a possible delay in the DTV transition, and therefore a delay in the availability of white spaces, several top tech companies announced Wednesday that they are joining forces to provide the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with technical recommendations for a white spaces database. Google, Comsearch, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Motorola, and Neustar will team up for the White Spaces Database Group, which will offer the FCC "perspectives, and some specific recommendations, about the technical requirements we would like to see adopted for the database," according to Google. "We don't plan to become a database administrator ourselves, but do want to work with the FCC to make sure that a white spaces database gets up and running," Richard Whitt, Google's Washington telecom and media counsel, wrote in a blog post. "We hope that this will unfold in a matter of months, not years." When TV broadcasters switch from analog to digital TV signals, unused spectrum - or white spaces - will emerge, and companies like Microsoft and Google want to use it for mobile broadband. Broadcasters, led by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), argue that such activity could disrupt TV signals and wireless microphone transmissions.