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Microsoft has another go at the wireless walls - August 13, 2007

The assault on wireless carriers' wall gardens and their allies at the FCC continues.

The Washington Post reports this morning that Microsoft will file a petition today with the agency, asking it to revisit its recent ruling regarding of blank spaces in television signals to carry wireless internet traffic. In its earlier ruling, the FCC said portable devices designed by Microsoft either interfered with the TV signals, or could not adequately detect them to avoid interference.

Microsoft said the first prototype devices were defective and wanted another crack at it. In its petition filed today the software giant claims the rejiggered device it demonstrated for the FCC last week worked as advertised, according to the Post's report.

Whether it worked well enough to convince the commission to reopen the issue remains to be seen. But even if the agency remains unconvinced it's unlikely to be able to put the issue to rest anytime soon.

Ever since Apple was able to muscle in on AT&T's relationships with iPhone users, the rush has been on to try to widen the breach in the wireless companies' walled gardens. So far, with the help of the FCC, the carriers have been able to contain the breach. But the assault continues.

The most dangerous threat came from Google, which tried to buy off the FCC with a promise to bid $4.6 billion for new wireless spectrum if the commission adopted rules requiring all new wireless networks to make a portion of their bandwidth available to resellers at wholesale prices. That would have allowed third-party ISPs to deliver video and other applications to wireless devices without having to go through AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

The FCC turned Google down, but did agree to require new networks to allow subscribers to attach their own devices to the system.

Now Microsoft is trying to find a way to widen the Wi-Fi opening into wireless devices carved out by Apple. It wants to piggy-back onto digital TV signals to offer wireless internet access over a much wider area than is possible from Wi-Fi hot spots.

Microsoft is promoting its scheme as a way to bring broadband to rural areas too remote for wire line service, always a good gambit in Washington, where rural state legislators wield disproportionate power. But the real goal, of course, is to use the new platform to reach a new generation of Wi-Fi enabled cell phones and other portable devices.

The beauty part for content owners is that they get to reap the benefits while Google, Microsoft and Apple do the heavy lifting. If wireless broadband to portable devices is going to develop into the next big platform for distributing music and video, some way has to be found to loosen the grip of the incumbent wireless carriers, who right now have every incentive to limit access to their subscribers.


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