Martin and Page together again for the first time

Silicon Valley is home to a lot of strange bedfellows, whether hard-nosed venture capitalists and Web 2.0 dreamers or bottom-line hardware tycoons and arty device designers. The odd couple on stage Thursday at the Wireless Communications Association International conference on Thursday, one in a blue suit and red power tie and the other in jeans, T-shirt and casual blazer, could stand with the best of them.

Kevin Martin, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, and Larry Page, co-founder and president of products at Google, appeared at a packed general session of the wireless broadband convention and later took questions from the media -- and a lot of onlookers -- in a small meeting room.

What brought them together was something critics consider even more incongruous: Wireless data streaming over the so-called "white spaces" of unused spectrum between TV stations. Broadcasters have spent years fighting efforts by Google, Microsoft and others to gain FCC approval for the practice, saying it would interfere with consumers' TV reception and the use of wireless microphones. Page and other supporters say technology can prevent that and open up a valuable new form of high-speed Internet access.

On Tuesday, the FCC approved a set of rules for unlicensed white-space wireless. Though critics have vowed to keep fighting, Martin and Page were optimistic cheerleaders for the initiative two days after the vote.

Answering questions on stage from WCAI President and CEO Fred Campbell, they said open networks and better use of spectrum can help to bring Internet access to more people in the U.S. and abroad.

Page likened white-spaces technology to Wi-Fi, which apparently is the only kind of network his employees use anymore.

"We have Ethernet cables, but they don't even plug them in, because Wi-Fi's so good that there's no point," Page said. The idea is that Wi-Fi's ubiquity has driven its price down over the years, which in turn has made it more ubiquitous. Page thinks radios that use the broadcasting white spaces will follow the same trajectory.

Soon, he expects all phones and laptops to have white-spaces connectivity, and for chips to fall to the current Wi-Fi price of about US$5 each. But in addition, the white-spaces frequencies allow for longer range and fewer base stations, which will make it less expensive to deploy than Wi-Fi, he said. Devices that support the technology may hit the market in as little as 18 months, Page said.

Speaking to reporters afterward, the two men reflected on their relatively recent cooperation. Google, founded in 1998, didn't even have a lobbying office in Washington, D.C., until 2005. Martin, a former lawyer for George W. Bush's 2000 campaign who is sometimes called "Harry Potter" for his wire-rim glasses and boyish looks, sat on a table sipping coffee while the taller Page leaned back drinking bottled water. Martin's rapid-fire delivery contrasted with Page's casual musings.

Google has actually been working on the white-spaces concept for about six years, according to Page. A team of two engineers was the "tiny little pumpkin" that grew into a project big enough to bring one of the company's founders together with the nation's top communications regulator.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.