Professional sports leagues concerned about white space spectrum

As expected, more groups are coming forward to voice their concern over unlicensed white space spectrum. The National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the PGA Tour, and ESPN have asked the FCC to ensure that it protects wireless microphones from interference from unlicensed devices operating in white-space spectrum.

In their joint filing, the leagues and ESPN--as members of the Sports Technology Alliance--assert that the FCC must require the technology companies that want to sell wireless white spaces devices to prove that their devices won't interfere with wireless microphones, which already operate in white spaces.

Last week hospital technology groups and vendors in the sector urged the FCC to be careful on how it approaches the white-space spectrum issue [1] because opening up some of those channels could lead to interference with medical devices. And the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) fiercely opposes unlicensed devices in white-space spectrum because of interference concerns with digital TV signals. CTIA wants white spaces auctioned.

For more about Sports Technology Alliance's concern over white spaces:
- check out this release [2]

Related articles:
- White-space broadband gets more and more complicated
[3]- Hospitals worry about white-space spectrum interference [1]
- CTIA weighs in on white spaces issue [4]
- Google steps up white spaces efforts [5]