White Space Soon to be Filled

Google recently announced its plan to use the soon vacant-television airwaves for a new wave of wireless devices. As television moves to digital programming, companies like Google and Microsoft have begun lobbying for the use of this "white space" that exists between television stations for a lower power generation of wireless devices, which are expected to transmit electronic data at a much faster rate than most wireless internet providers currently offer. Google's plans include the making of a line of phones that operate on the white space and offer internet access as well as other wireless devices that will be modeled after Google's Android software. Executives at Google feel that the use of this white space could lead to large economic gains. Since Google is primarily based on the selling of advertising, expanding the access and speed of the internet will serve to make it an even larger and more often used advertising medium. More usage translates to more exposure for any advertising campaigns that have purchased space on Google. With this lobbying comes a growing concern that this use of white space between television stations will cause interference with such devices as wireless microphones as well as with television broadcasts in general. Google attempted Monday to assure the public that these problems will not occur as they spoke about plans to leave channels 36-38 clear for commercial use. Devices such as microphones "along with medical telemetry and radio astronomy devices" would have these channels designated for their use specifically. Therefore, no wireless devices could possibly interfere with that white space. Google also spoke about the use of "spectrum-sensing technologies" to test if channels were in use before attempting to utilize them. The military already uses this technology, and will keep problems with interference from occuring.
I think this use of white space could prove to be a great new advertising opportunity. The internet is already used by a large portion of the population, and a growing amount of those users access internet services through personal portable devices. Making this access both more expansive, as well as faster than an average internet connection means that more people will be exposed to more advertising more often. If these devices are released in late 2009 as planned, it will be interesting to see if they become the next generation of internet use, and therefore the next big marketing medium.

Source: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=google-unveils-white-spac