Seven leading technology companies are collaborating to facilitate the timely creation and operation of a white spaces database to govern use of the vacant television broadband spectrum, commonly known as TV white spaces. The Group intends to establish data formats and protocols that are open and non-proprietary and will advocate that database administration be open and non-exclusive.
Founding members of the White Spaces Database Group include Comsearch, Dell, Google, HP, Microsoft, Motorola, and NeuStar.
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- In November 2008, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved the use of white spaces spectrum by unlicensed devices. Pursuant to that decision, white spaces devices will be required to access a white spaces database to determine available channels before transmit capabilities are engaged. After eight months of thorough laboratory and field-testing, the Commission established geo-location based methods are fully adept at identifying television signals and preventing interference.