New York – Community media and immigrant rights advocates are calling on City Council to endorse “white space devices,” a new technology that would boost the economy and drive down the cost of mobile phone calls and Internet access.

White spaces are the unused airwaves allocated to television signals. With the digital television transition, one-fifth of television channels in New York City are not in use, according to a study conducted by Free Press. Engineering tests conducted by the Federal Communications Commission have shown that low-power, mobile devices can use these channels without interfering with TV broadcasts and wireless microphones on adjacent channels.

The FCC is currently formulating rules to allow – or prohibit – people from using the white spaces, with a decision expected in late October.

“Opening the white spaces would close the digital divide, and it wouldn't cost us a dime – or, rather, it would save us a lot more than a dime on what we're paying now for Internet access and cell phone service,” Joshua Breitbart, Policy Director of People's Production House said.

Mobile phones are far more widespread than computers with at-home Internet, especially among the groups currently marginalized from the Internet. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, “African Americans and English-speaking Hispanics are more likely than white Americans to use cell phones or PDAs for non-voice data applications.” The situation is similar, if not quite as dramatic, for seniors and those with low incomes.

“White space devices would be an affordable alternatives for people like me who use expensive phone cards to call family and friends back home in other countries,” Abdulai Bah of Nah We Yone said.

A draft resolution currently before the City Council, sponsored by Councilmember Gale Brewer and Speaker Christine Quinn, claims white space devices would be "devastating" to Broadway productions. The Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry, opposes the certification of white space devices because the manufacturers of wireless microphone systems believe white space devices will disrupt the wireless microphones that they use for their shows.

The City Council Committee on Technology in Government is holding a hearing on the “white spaces” resolution on Monday, September 29, 2008, at 10:00am, in the Committee Room of City Hall. It is a public forum where anyone can testify. No identification is required to enter the building.

People's Production House is a national media justice organization based in New York City. It provides young people, immigrants, and low-wage workers with a comprehensive education for the information age, combining media production, media literacy and media policy.

Nah We Yone advocates for refugees and asylum seekers from Africa.

For more information please contact Joshua Breitbart at 212-334-7433

The Indypendent newspaper asked me to write an article for their October 3 issue explaining the importance of white spaces. (Updated following the hearing.)

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In late October, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will decide on an issue that could completely change how you talk on the phone and connect to the Internet. They are weighing what to do with the “white spaces,” which are unused TV channels and spaces in between channels.

Those spaces originally helped keep television signals from interfering with each other. That is why in New York we have channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and so forth. There were open channels, or “white spaces,” on 3, 6, 8, 10, 12.

With the switch to digital television (DTV), which every broadcaster must do by Feb. 17, 2009, the signals do not need as much padding to keep from interfering. The freed up space is a digital dividend.

The government already auctioned off most of this dividend to Verizon and AT&T, but the smaller white spaces in between active channels are a little harder to use.

Still, those small spaces can add up. After the DTV transition, one-fifth of the available channels in New York City will be vacant, according to a study by the media reform organization Free Press. And New York has among the most crowded airwaves in the country. The available space in smaller cities and rural areas is far larger.

If we opened up this part of the airwaves for portable, low-power devices — in rural areas, it could be fixed, higher-powered signals — we could connect millions of new people to the Internet for far less than what we now pay. In a city like New York, those portable devices could even take the place of our expensive, never-quite-work-how-you-want-them-to cellular phones.

The City Council Committee on Technology in Government held a hearing on white spaces Sept. 29 to consider a resolution urging the FCC to hold back from opening white space devices.

Current license holders like TV broadcasters don't want to share the airwaves. They paint a fearful picture of white space devices interfering with TV signals and wireless microphones used for film and
TV production.

They used the same “ocean of interference” canard to limit low-power radio licensing in 2000, until an FCC study showed the claim to be unfounded. The FCC is currently conducting tests to ensure that white space devices would not interfere with other signals.

Others who use these airwaves without a license, like Broadway shows and music venues that rely on wireless microphones, who are currently operating illegally, would like to become authorized, protected users.

At the hearing, advocates for expanded access to the Internet, including NYCwireless, Wireless Harlem, The Ethos Group, Free Press and Common Cause, criticized the resolution. There is no word yet on when the Committee will vote on it.

FCC certification of white space devices is the most significant step we could take towards closing the digital divide, and it wouldn't cost us a dime — or, rather, it would cost us a dime less than what we're paying now for Internet access and cell phone service.

Wireless access is not a full replacement for wired connections, but it is a much cheaper way to bring people the Internet. Mobile phones are far more widespread than in-home computers with broadband connections, especially among the groups currently marginalized from the Internet. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, “African Americans and English-speaking Hispanics are more likely than white Americans to use cell phones or PDAs for non-voice data applications.” Imagine what could happen if all of these people had this new opportunity to speak and listen.

Once you don't have to rely on big, corporate license-holders to get a connection, you can start to invent entirely new devices and applications. The FCC used the same kind of open platform for innovation with the 2.4 gigahertz band. That led to an astounding array of inventions — cordless phones, remote controls, microwave ovens, and wi-fi routers — all sharing one tiny piece of the airwaves.

With access to the white spaces, the sky's the limit.

For more information and to learn what you can do to open the airwaves, visit speakandlisten.net.

On Wednesday, September 24, City Councilmember Gale Brewer and Speaker Christine Quinn introduced a resolution urging the Federal Communications Commission to refrain from certifying white space devices, which the resolution claims would be "devastating" to "the incomparable mystique and excitement of the City of New York’s theatre district" and would "[jeopardize] the health and safety of performers, technicians and stagehands."

People's Production House, which supports opening the airwaves to white space devices, believes the resolution contains multiple omissions, errors, and misrepresentations. The saddest part of the resolution is that it asks us to sacrifice low-income New Yorkers in favor of high-priced musicals, when the white space technology allows us to have both.

White spaces are the unused airwaves allocated to television signals. Even in New York City, with the digital television transition, fully one-fifth of our television channels are not in use, according to a study conducted by Free Press. Engineering tests conducted by the FCC have shown that low-power mobile devices can use these channels without interfering with TV broadcasts and wireless microphones on adjacent channels.

Omissions

The resolution makes no mention of the digital divide. According to a recent study commissioned by the City's Economic Development Corporation, 76% of low-income New Yorkers lack a high-speed Internet connection in their home. By bringing meaningful, cheaper Internet access to mobile phones, the opening up of white spaces would do more to impact that inequity than any other measure the government could take. Disparities in mobile phone use, even with data services like email or web, are much smaller than at-home Internet connections, in terms of class and race.

The resolution makes no mention of People's Production House or the broad coalition of public interest organizations advocating for unlicensed use of the white spaces. Instead, it attributes the pressure for this policy change solely to "an alliance of large technology companies."

While mentioning many of those technology companies by name and separately talking about "the equivalent of over 44,000 full time jobs" that Broadway provides, the resolution neglects to mention that software services alone provide over 94,000 jobs to New York City, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. White space devices would provide an entirely new platform for that industry, giving it a huge boost at a time when our local economy sorely needs it.

Perhaps most importantly, the resolution never acknowledges that Broadway productions are illegal users of wireless microphone systems. Despite deceptive advertising by wireless microphone companies to the contrary, only film and television productions are authorized to use the systems. The resolution is part of a campaign by those manufacturers – including Shure, Nady, VocoPro, Audio2000, Sennheiser, Audix, Electro Voice, Hisonic International, and Pyle Audio – to avoid being held accountable for putting their customers at risk.

Errors

The resolution states, "Testing by the FCC ... has consistently demonstrated that these devices do not accurately detect occupied channels, and therefore can interfere with wireless microphone transmissions." This is wrong. As Sascha Meinrath and Michael Calabrese of the New America Foundation explain, "[white space devices (WSDs)] work perfectly at their intended design specifications. One particularly deceptive tactic [from WSD opponents] has been to 'move the goal posts' by claiming that prototype WSDs should detect very weak and/or distant out-of-market TV signals at threshold levels they were not designed to detect... In fact, WSDs can measure broadcast signals at levels that are 1/1000th the power level needed for a television to actually display a picture."

The resolution states, "If the FCC implements the regulatory changes under consideration, live theatre, the performing arts, film and television production companies will be unable to prevent constant interference with microphone systems, devastating those industries within the City of New York." No one has proposed anything that would harm those industries. As a non-profit cultural organization ourselves, People's Production House would never advocate for anything that would harm cultural institutions. We want the FCC to establish rules for certifying devices that can peacefully coexist on the vacant TV channels. Everyone agrees that if the devices can't follow the rules, they shouldn't be certified.

Misrepresentations

The resolution says that, "White spaces were assigned by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in order to minimize interference between television broadcast channels." This is true, but it fails to mention that the spaces were necessary for analog signals in a way that they are not for digital. All broadcasts will be digital after the digital television transition in February 2009, making the previous white space allocation excessive.

Finally, by calling on the FCC "to refrain from implementing proposed regulatory amendments," the resolution implies that we should stick with the status quo, where everything is working fine. Leaving aside that the status quo has Broadway continuing to break the law, change is coming to the wireless microphone industry one way or the other. They will have to vacate the 700 Mghz band, which has been auctioned off, and channels 52-69 are reserved for public safety. As it now stands, it is in fact wireless microphone operators who run the risk of interfering with critical public safety communications if they don't make adjustments.