Microsoft, Philips retest 'white spaces' device

A group of technology vendors has submitted new test results for a wireless device intended to operate in unused portions of the television spectrum after an identical device malfunctioned in U.S. Federal Communications Commission tests earlier this year.

The new tests showed the wireless device correctly detected TV signals and stayed out of that part of the spectrum 100 percent of the time, according to a filing on behalf of Microsoft and Philips Electronics.

Microsoft and Philips are part of the White Spaces Coalition, a group of tech vendors asking the FCC to allow wireless devices to operate in the so-called white spaces of the television spectrum. The coalition wants the white spaces opened up to give consumers more wireless broadband options.

Television broadcasters have opposed the White Spaces Coalition, saying it's too likely that wireless devices will interfere with TV signals.

On July 31, the FCC declined to license a wireless device built by the coalition, saying it interfered with TV signals. Microsoft later said the device was damaged and "operated at a severely degraded level."

On Thursday, Microsoft and Philips submitted new tests to the FCC. In their new tests, the wireless device detected signals that are "far too weak for a television set to produce a broadcast television picture," wrote Ed Thomas, a tech advisor to the White Spaces Coalition and a former chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology.

The FCC will likely do its own retest of the device. The White Spaces Coalition hopes the FCC can make a decision to approve the device by the end of the year, Thomas said. The group had originally hoped the FCC would make a decision by October, and members believe the FCC can still make a decision soon, he said.

"We'd love to see the FCC do whatever they need to do to corroborate our data," Thomas said. "We hope we've moved the ball a long way to help them make a decision."

This month, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Association for Maximum Service Television launched a campaign urging the FCC to reject white spaces devices. The wireless devices could cause "devastating interference" to digital TV sets, the two groups said.

"While our friends at Intel, Google, and Microsoft may find system errors, computer glitches, and dropped calls tolerable, broadcasters do not," Alan Frank, NAB's chairman, said in a news release this month.