I must begin today with offering my congratulations to our soon-to-be President, Senator Barack Obama. As a reforming political junkie (I was active in local politics for many years, and last night had the privilege of being part of our local cable-access election coverage programming, and, yes, I even won an election once myself), I don’t get nearly as excited about political goings-on as I used to. But the fact that we’re very clearly moving beyond the traumas that have occupied so much of our time in recent years is indeed exciting. As an entrepreneur, I’m always optimistic, and today even more so than usual. Oh, and anyone who studies strategy would do well to review how the Obama campaign was run – absolutely brilliant. Even if you voted for the other guy (and about half the country did, after all), you have to admire how the Obama team got the job done.
And so with so much attention on the political scene, yesterday’s ruling on the White Spaces by the FCC probably won’t make it to Page 1 today. But this rule change does in fact open up a lot of very nice spectrum for unlicensed use. There will be requirements for sensing and geolocation to be used to avoid stepping on broadcast TV channels that remain in use, as well as other traffic already present there. The actual rules won’t be published for a few days, but we can assume that yet another type of limited-range, broadly-available wireless communications will become available across the country over the next few years. I’m personally waiting for a trade association to be formed, or perhaps for a current association to step forward to set specs here. Such will be, as always, critical to the evolution of any new wireless capability.
Returning to politics, the broadcasters, who previously saw the White Spaces as their personal homeland, have been taken down another peg. Once the most important lobby in Washington, the TV broadcasters today suffer from a shrinking audience, the availability of a number of alternatives (most notably video on the Web, handsets (to some degree), and of course on cable), and the general thinning of the TV audience as so many alternatives for spending (or wasting) our time have emerged. I look at this shift as simply part of the natural evolution of both technologies and societies. A buggy-whip mentality is totally inappropriate, especially when a little well-thought-out economic progress is so urgently needed. The availability of the White Spaces won’t make President Obama’s economic task much easier, but every little bit helps.
