Microsoft Renews FCC Fight Over TV 'White Space'

Regulators won't OK Microsoft's plan to give consumers access to the Internet through unused TV airwaves, but the firm isn't taking no for an answer. The FCC has already nixed a protoype that caused static on existing broadcasts, but Microsoft says it now has a version that works, and a filing today will ask regulators to reconsider the initial ruling.

A coalition of high-tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, and Dell, wants the FCC to make available the airwaves that will fall out of use when TV signals become digital in 2009. Using vacant TV airwaves, or "white space," to provide Internet access would make it cheaper and easier, the Washington Post reports. But broadcasters fear programming interruptions. (More Microsoft stories.)