Microsoft Questions FCC's 'White Spaces' Decision

narramissic writes "Late last month a wireless prototype submitted by Microsoft and other members of the White Spaces Coalition was rejected by the FCC because it interfered with cable channels. Microsoft, though, claims that the device was malfunctioning when the FCC tested it. From the article: 'In a letter to the FCC Monday, Microsoft said the scanner in one of two prototypes was damaged and "operated at a severely degraded level. The damaged scanner accounted for the entire discrepancy between the Microsoft and the FCC bench test data," said Ed Thomas, a consultant for the White Spaces Coalition and a former chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology.'"

Re:FUD -- Microsoft needs to prove it works

[SpaceLifeForm]

Apparently there was a backup device, but the FCC did not use it.

Link [statesman.com]

White spaces != unused

[EmbeddedJanitor]

There is a perception amongst many that white spaces are unused. That is not always correct. These white spaces can serve a purpose.

In some cases, RF automatic tunig circuits need the white spaces as a way to distinguish the signal envelope (ie. the "edges" of the signal it is tracking). If you pack the white spaces with RF then those edges get blurred and some AFC circuitry will malfunction.

Re:We Need Wireless Broadband

[AK Marc]

Some 3rd world countries have better wireless broadband access than we do.

Well, they should. For a small number of users and no existing infrastructure, wireless is completely superior. However, we have copper lines to almost every house. We get broadband to the home, and wireless is only as good as necessary between the billion or so copper lines run all around. The only places with successful wireless are the places where the copper wires aren't being used effectively for high-speed Internet. You can't put the population of NYC on wireless broadband. The density will not allow everyone to have broadband speeds.