Microsoft 'white spaces' prototype shuts down
For the second time, a device submitted by Microsoft for U.S. Federal Communications
Commission testing of wireless "white spaces" technology has stopped
working and been taken out of the process.
The wireless prototype, which was not made by Microsoft, unexpectedly stopped
working on Wednesday, Microsoft said Friday. In February, the FCC took another
Microsoft-submitted
device out of testing because it had power problems.
The White Spaces Coalition, which includes Google, Philips and Dell as well
as Microsoft, has asked the FCC to let wireless devices use vacant frequencies,
referred to as white spaces, in the spectrum band allocated to television. They
say this would give consumers more wireless broadband options. Opponents, including
the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), say such devices would interfere
with TV broadcasts. Microsoft and others voluntarily submitted prototype devices
for testing, a step that usually isn't included in this type of FCC process,
said Microsoft spokeswoman Ginny Terzano.
The NAB used Wednesday's unexpected shutdown to attack the white-spaces backers.
"In baseball, it's three strikes and you're out. How many strikes does
Microsoft get? If they can't get the device to work in the lab, how are they
going to get it to work in the real world?" NAB Executive Vice President
Dennis Wharton said in a statement sent to reporters.
Microsoft said the problems that took the two devices out of testing were unrelated
to interference and that the units were experimental, not production devices.
The FCC gathered valuable information by testing them, and there are three other
devices submitted by other parties that can still be used, Terzano said. If
Microsoft had tried to do anything to the two devices to get them working again,
they probably would have been considered new devices and the FCC would have
had to redo its tests on them, she said.
"Considering where we are in the lab testing process ... we think that
it's more prudent to continue with the other non-Microsoft devices that are
currently going through testing," Terzano said.
Based on observations from Microsoft engineers observing the tests, "the
data the FCC has gotten so far has found that there is no interference,"
she said.
IDG News Service
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