Google cofounder Larry Page returned to Capitol Hill this week to argue that the Federal Communications Commission needs to quickly approve the launch of a nationwide high-speed wireless service using white space, the vacant slices of electromagnetic spectrum between broadcast TV channels.
“All we need for the FCC to say is what it generally says: You can produce a device if it is shown to not interfere,” Page said. “And I have a 100 percent confidence that it will happen.”
‘A No-Brainer’
During his remarks at an event sponsored by the Wireless Innovation Alliance, Page held up a Wi-Fi-enabled Android handset. “Wi-Fi is the combination of a really junky piece of spectrum that was once thought to be useful only for garage door openers” because of concerns about microwave-oven interference, Page said. “The chips cost about $5, which is why it’s going to be in a billion devices this year.”
Wi-Fi represents a “tiny, tiny slice of spectrum” that is heavily used by millions of people around the world, Page said. The time has come to make the limited spectrum available to unlicensed wireless devices a little bigger, he said.
“In the public debate we are wondering whether we should take this tiny sliver, make it a tiny bit bigger, and actually get higher data rates and get things to work better,” Page added. “And that’s such a no-brainer for me, I am amazed we are in the state of the debate that we are.”
Page observed that Wi-Fi is actually “the worst possible bit of spectrum that we could be using” because it doesn’t go through walls very well and it places limitations on the streaming of video to points near the edge of wireless coverage.
“But with white spaces you can do that perfectly,” Page said. “With whites spaces, you would be able…