Kerry, Snowe urge FCC to hurry up on freeing spectrum for wireless

Members of the Senate Commerce Committee urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to come through on a proposal for the nation's broadband future by freeing up unused television airwaves for wireless devices, a process that has dragged on for six years.

In a letter Monday to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Commerce communications subpanel, and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), a member of the commerce panel, called for the agency to free up unused spectrum, known as "white spaces," because it could help narrow the digital divide.

Arguing the move would "empower manufacturers and consumers to construct multiple paths to the Internet," the senators said the proposal would help bring the Internet to the 14 million people in the United States who still lack access.

“The ‘white spaces’ spectrum provides an opportunity to reach these Americans,” Snowe said in a statement.

The agency makes the same recommendation in its National Broadband Plan, a sweeping document that lays out almost 360 pages of recommendations for expanding — and speeding up — American connectivity. In the plan, the agency says its must move "expeditiously" to unleash white spaces for wireless broadband, completing a proceeding it took up six years ago.

But with dozens of recommendations packed into the broadband plan, some are sure to collect dust for years unless the FCC chooses to prioritize them. A recommendation from key senators could help move a proposal up from the back burner as the agency tries to tackle countless issues at once.

In its schedule for implementing the plan, the FCC has promised to complete the white spaces proceeding during the third quarter of this year. It still has to complete the final rules about which devices can use the spectrum, as well as resolve challenges to rules and set up a database to manage device issues.

The FCC blames the complexity of making device rules for its failure to finish the proceeding.

Still, in the National Broadband Plan, the agency touts the white spaces proposal, pointing out how similar policies have provided broadband service to a school in rural Virginia and to a demonstration wireless broadband network in Wilmington, N.C.