FCC makes white spaces available to public

On Tues. there was another vote besides the one you cast to put Barack Obama in the White House.

...the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve the unlicensed use of 'white spaces' -- empty airwaves between television channels [that will become available next year when all TV goes to digital] -- to provide high-speed Internet access nationwide. This vote follows an exhaustive 18-month study released last month by the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology that concluded new technology can use white spaces without harming adjacent TV signals.

In letters to the FCC and Congress, the nation's leading consumer, media and public interest groups voiced their strong support for opening white spaces. These groups include Free Press, the National Organization for Women, Feminist Majority, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, Public Knowledge, Media Access Project, MoveOn.org, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Common Cause and the Center for Media Justice, among others.

Nearly every market in the United States has available white spaces; in some communities, more than three-quarters of the broadcast spectrum is unused. [Tuesday's] FCC vote allows innovators to develop new technologies that will bring Internet service to millions of Americans in underserved communities.

(From:Free Press)