A wireless device submitted by Microsoft to the Federal Communications Commission for testing has been pulled after a disastrous failure. The prototype reportedly stopped working after tests by the FCC, which is the second such device submitted by the software giant, as part of the White Spaces Coalition, which involves a joint effort by Dell, Google, Phillips and Microsoft to explore the possible uses for vacant frequencies in the same spectrum band employed by television (54-698 MHz) to transmit data ‘over the air’.

Concerns have arisen that the devices would interfere with television broadcasts, or conversely, suffer interference from television, which could render the proposed technology untenable for the coalition. Microsoft denies that the failure was caused by interference, and cite ‘power problems’ as the culprit.

The National Association of Broadcasters, who oppose the plan said in a statement..

“In baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. How many strikes does Microsoft get? If they can’t get the device to work in the lab, how are they going to get it to work in the real world?”

Previously, back in August 2007 Microsoft filed a document with the FCC in which it described a meeting between it’s own engineers and FCC engineers from the Office of Engineering and Technology, which showed results from testing done with identical prototype devices and using testing methods that detected DTV signals at a threshold of -114 dBm in laboratory bench testing with 100 percent accuracy, performing exactly as expected.

The trials are set to continue with three other non-microsoft devices despite the objections of the NAB.

©SE all rights reserved. Linking policy