Tech group, broadcasters slug it out on white spaces

A technology trade group has accused U.S. television executives of conducting a “misinformation campaign” about wireless devices designed to operate in unused portions of the television spectrum.

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) on Thursday accused executives at four major television networks, including CBS and NBC Universal, of spreading false information about the interference possibilities for proposed devices that would operate in the “white spaces” of the television spectrum.

ITI and tech vendors, including Microsoft, Google, Dell, and Philips Electronics North America, are pushing the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to approve prototype wireless devices that would operate in the white spaces. But in July, a prototype device submitted to the FCC by Microsoft malfunctioned in tests and was not approved by the agency.

Microsoft and Philips retested an identical device and said last month that it passed interference sensing tests.

The four TV executives, including Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp., and Robert Iger, president and CEO of The Walt Disney Co., sent a letter to the FCC Thursday, asking the agency to reject new white-spaces devices.

“Current proposals based on ‘sensing’ to avoid interference could cause permanent damage to over-the-air digital television reception,” said the letter, also signed by Leslie Moonves, president and CEO at CBS, and Jeffrey Zucker, president and CEO at NBC. “Interference in the digital world will cause a digital picture to freeze and become unwatchable.”

Brian Peters, ITI’s director of government relations, accused the TV executives and trade association the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) of spreading “unfounded claims of interference designed to confuse consumers and policymakers.”

The broadcasters are blocking innovative new wireless products from reaching U.S. consumers, Peters said in an e-mail.

“It is unfortunate that the network CEOs have let their D.C. trade association drag them into the misinformation campaign,” Peters added. “The NAB simply doesn’t want consumers to have a choice. They want the same antiquated grip on unused white spaces they have enjoyed for decades.”

But the unsuccessful tests of white-spaces prototypes earlier this year show there’s a reason for concern, said Dennis Wharton, an NAB spokesman. While Microsoft said one device’s spectrum scanner malfunctioned, a second device took about 20 seconds to find nearby broadcast signals, Wharton said.

“There’s no misinformation related to the fact that unlicensed devices submitted to the FCC … failed miserably,” Wharton said.