Transcript

Monday August 18, 2008

Google today announced Free The Airwaves, an effort to encourage the Federal Communications Commission to rule white spaces, or those open airwaves between broadcast TV channels, be made available for unlicensed use to provide affordable, high speed Internet connectivity nationwide. Without denying the effort is motivated in part by the business opportunities it would lend, Google is inviting anyone interested to film a video response in which they explain what increased Internet access could mean, to sign a petition to the FCC, to contact elected officials, to spread the word, and more. The FCC, which has been testing methods to prevent interference, faces heavy opposition from broadcasters that feel opening the airwaves will only cause interference in their signals, thus resulting in harm to their businesses. Wireless microphone companies have joined the opposition, worried the new devices could prompt their microphones to fail. A decision isn’t expected until September, but until then, you can check out what some are saying at www.freetheairwaves.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121902086259648443.html
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/time-to-free-airwaves.html
http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2008/08/time-to-free-airwaves.html
http://www.freetheairwaves.com/

[edited by: Vanessa_Zamora at 4:11 pm (utc) on Aug. 20, 2008]