INTRO: Friday, Google filed a google_ex_parte_white_spaces_proposal4.pdf">proposal [PDF] with the FCC to establish rules governing "white spaces," wireless spectrum available between traditional analog [?] television channels that may be used for wireless internet access. The company followed up the proposal with a conference call Monday. (Silicon Alley Insider has a transcript and overview.)

Google is just one of many companies that make up the Wireless Innovation Alliance, which also includes large corporate hardware and software manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Microsoft, as well as activist and community consortiums like Prometheus Radio and the Media Access Project.

HOW WHITE SPACES WORK: Like other modern wireless data radio networks such as Wi-Fi, the term "White Spaces" refers not to a specific frequency, but a collection of frequencies that currently comprise the analog television channels 2 and 51. [What frequencies are those?] Rather than operating on frequencies between existing channels, devices that communicate on White Spaces frequencies would operate on channels not currently used by local television markets. [I think that's right.] By using a GPS-like "geolocation" chip, each White Space device would be able to determine which channels were open in the physical areas in which it operated by consulting an open frequency database.

FUTURE PLANS: Furthermore, Google proposed Friday that the same sort of open frequency database could facilitate a "dynamic...real-time airwaves auction model," in which license holders of spectrum could sell access to various frequencies as they became available, utilized by smart wireless devices capable of discovering open frequencies throughout the entire usable spectrum range to assemble a multi-frequency wireless access at "gigabits-per-second ... in the not-to-distant future"—Google referred to this as a "Wi-Fi 2.0." [To me, this is the nut of the story: Google wants the FCC to rejigger the entire wireless spectrum provisioning system to allow a real-time allocation of free spectrum to the highest bidder. Some spectrum access would still be sold for billions of dollars to corporations, but all the available frequencies, whether corporate licensed or held open for the public, would be constantly available for access. You'd need devices with a software radio that could communicate on a huge range of frequencies and antenna design might be a pain. Am I parsing this correctly?]

TECH PROBLEMS: A White Space device submitted for testing last year failed to always recognize channels in which analog television stations were broadcasting. Google stated in its conference call Monday that the FCC was currently "testing several pieces of equipment" and that rules governing the White Space frequencies were anticipated from the FCC by the end of the year. [Okay, so if all the TV is going to digital next year...I need to figure out what frequencies we're talking about here. Looks like analog bands are between 54 and somewhere around 400 MHz 698 Mhz. Or just under 700MHz, which is the frequency Google did not license, but Verizon did. So the digital switchover uses the same frequencies, just digital signals instead of analog? I didn't realize that.]

OTHER HURDLES: While the frequencies used by television stations do have a long reach and easily penetrate walls, it is important to remember that these signals are one-way communications, often broadcast from giant antennas at megawatts of power. For gadgets and computers, a much lower transmission power would be used, greatly decreasing the range of the White Space devices. [So are we talking Wi-Fi-like ranges here or 3G-like ranges? Either way there would need to be lots of repeaters to establish coverage and that's not something that Google intends to do, I don't believe.] The National Association of Broadcasters has also questioned the ability of White Space devices to operate without interfering with television broadcasts. In addition, wireless microphones could be affected, although Google has proposed a "beacon" that could be utilized alongside existing wireless microphone equipment that would alert White Space devices not to operate on the same channel.

Update 11:30ET: Moved the first draft of this post after the jump. Am now going to start breaking out entire sections of the proposal here, with questions and commentary. Anything in [brackets] needs clarification.

Update 12:30ET: I'm going to take a break and look at some other stuff for a while. This is all starting to make sense, though, I think.

So I'm here. I'm on the other side of your monitor, thumbing through coverage of google_ex_parte_white_spaces_proposal4.pdf">Google's White Space proposal that they filed Friday and gave a press conference about Monday. I think it's probably a huge, fundamental shift in not only Google's business plan, but for wireless internet access in general. I'm taking my time to try to understand it, because it's going to be one of the stories of the year.

Rather than continuing to post about it in separate posts, though, I thought I'd try something a little different this morning. I'm going to keep working this post into something more cohesive as I understand more, so if you see multiple versions of the post throughout the day, that's why. Also, I'd like to invite you to join me in #boingboing on Freenode if you'd like to discuss the White Space concept and what it will mean for internet access and devices in the future. Or if you'd like to just talk about pants. Because who doesn't love pants?

Here's the first thing that caught my eye from the proposal, which is how the White Space devices (and I'm going to keep capitalizing "White Space" until I can come up with a better abbreviation) will actually operate without interfering with other existing devices, including (of all things) wireless microphones.

Under our own enhanced protection proposal, a TV white space device will not transmit on a channel until it first has received an "all clear" signal for that channel, either directly from a database of licensed transmitters in that area, or from a geo-located device with access to that database. That "permission to transmit" signal (at a maximum power level of 4W EIRP) would be sent on channels the geo-located device already knows are clear of licensed users. Any device without geo-location and database access would not transmit at all, unless and until it has successfully received advance permission from such a device.

Further, all TV white space devices would be blocked from transmitting by any wireless microphone beacon in that channel, using signals specifically designed to be easy to reliably detect, and coded to be identifiable to prevent abuse. These beacons should be quite inexpensive, and would be used in conjunction with existing wireless microphones, so there would be no need to replace legacy devices. In addition, we are proposing a "safe harbor" for wireless microphones in channels 36- 38. No TV white space device would be permitted to transmit in these channels. This will also protect medical telemetry devices and radio astronomy services, which are licensed to use channel 37.

Some questions I have off hand: Is this the same technology Microsoft kept submitting to the FCC and it kept failing? What is the difference between this open access internet and the 700MHz access that Verizon must now offer? Will either be free or discounted in price? Will the White Space networks be more like Wi-Fi hotspots or wide 3G coverage? Why does Android keep being mentioned, besides being a Google project? Is there something Android does that other mobile OSes could not with the White Space spectrum? Why is the National Association of Broadcasters freaking out about disrupting analog television when that is going to be shut off next year? Are they actually just upset about the wireless mics not working? How badly does White Space broadcasts actually affect wireless mics? Does it kill or simply degrade the quality?

This post is a mess, but as I start to figure this stuff out today, I'll clean it up. This would be awesome as an embedded wiki, would it not? Except for all the rickrolls and cock jokes?