Freedom, the Net, and clean white spaces

The duopoly of cable and telco control of broadband delivers varying, meager connectivity to the masses. Google thinks there's another way to bring the speed and the solution to broadband woes.


Google wants to give you static.

Ok, not static, but swift, wireless broadband service, delivered along the conduits of unused television spectrum that are just fuzzy static today. There's a ton of white space out there, enough that Google believes a little help from the FCC will remake the Internet landscape.

Open it up, and everyone benefits, says the official Google blog:

When it comes to opening these airwaves, we believe the public interest is clear. But we also want to be transparent about our involvement: Google has a clear business interest in expanding access to the web. There's no doubt that if these airwaves are opened up to unlicensed use, more people will be using the Internet. That's certainly good for Google (not to mention many of our industry peers) but we also think that it's good for consumers.

More Internet users on faster connections means greater opportunities for Google to drop advertising in front of them. It's a simple business proposition - expand the size of the pie so your slice become bigger.

Google wants you to help Free The Airwaves, or at least visit a new website dedicated to getting that message out ahead of the FCC's decision on whether or not unused TV spectrum becomes available for broadband.

I'm interested in seeing this happen, but Google and its Wireless Innovation Alliance pals, Microsoft among them, need to make the technology work, without interfering either with TV or wireless microphones.

Part of the FCC's process of determining whether or not Google and company can push broadband over white spaces involves testing the necessary devices at places where wireless mics are in use, like concert venues.

On the sideline, rooting for it to fail, will be the National Association of Broadcasters. The Washington Post said a few months back the NAB claimed the technology failed to prove itself in FCC tests. Google and its partners disputed that, in what became a perquisite exchange of heated press releases and other public commentary.

If the technology ends up working to the approval of FCC taskmasters, people will have to make a different choice. Will they trust a consortium of big technology players, Google, Microsoft, and Intel among them, to be the gatekeepers of fast wireless Internet service?