Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District
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Inslee renews push for increased broadband access
20 March 2007
U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) introduced legislation that companies like Microsoft and Dell say would make high-speed Internet accessible to millions more American as soon as 2009. Fellow member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) cosponsored the measure.
Specifically, their Wireless Innovation Act of 2007 would make use of spectrum in the gaps or "white spaces" between broadcast channels two and 51 when the transition from analog to digital television is complete in two years. With the capacity to transmit data over longer distances with less power, this prime spectrum, now reserved primarily for television broadcasting, could support a wide range of innovative wireless devices and services that aren't useable in other frequencies.
"This spectrum has virtually unlimited potential," said Inslee, who introduced similar legislation during the last session of Congress. "It will open the floodgates to innovation and usher in a new wave of high-tech advances."
The Inslee-Deal legislation also contains protections for incumbent users, such as broadcasters, performers and reporters who use wireless microphones, and pubic-safety personnel.
Some say unlicensed devices that take advantage of white spaces could degrade television services. Inslee, however, points to the fact that the Defense Department already has approved spectrum-sensing technology for such devices that share spectrum with military radar.
"For too long, this high-potential spectrum has gone to waste," Inslee added. "Now that we have technology that can operate in white spaces without affecting current users, it's time to get rural and underserved Americans online."
Last week, a coalition of high-tech companies provided a prototype white-spaces device to the Federal Communications Commission for testing. The federal agency, with jurisdiction over television, radio, wire, satellite and cable communications, must certify the technology before it can be sold to consumers.
Other cosponsors of the Inslee-Deal legislation include U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mike Rogers (R-Maine), Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio). U.S. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) have a companion measure, S. 234. It was filed in the Senate this January.