While most of the wireless industry is gearing up for the January 700 MHz spectrum auction, Google, which intends to bid in that auction, is also investigating the "white spaces," or unlicensed spectrum that sits between spectrum currently licensed to television broadcasters. Google and others would like to use this spectrum to carry mobile Internet devices. While past efforts by Google, Microsoft, Philips and others for prototypes that run on the white spaces were largely rejected by the FCC, Google has since decided to go it alone with its own tests. The company presented results of an "initial phase of ongoing trials" around white space technology that it says demonstrates that digital televisions and wireless microphones can exists side-by-side without interference.
For more on the tests:
- read this report from MarketWatch