Small Town TV Stations Join The White Space Debate

The ongoing battle for available broadcast spectrum for new consumer devices has opened on another front.

Dell has joined giants like Google and Microsoft in the fight to control wireless spectrum, but it appears that they are trying to come in the back door.

Forbes reports that Dell founder Michael Dell is quietly buying up bankrupt local television stations.  It seems unlikely that Dell will be hiring weather girls and operating traffic cams, so the speculation is that they are attempting to acquire the broadcast spectrum that the FCC licences to these local broadcasters.  As the value of allocated frequencies continues to rise, Dell may be trying to position itself as a “player” by acquiring rights to spectrum not through FCC auctions like the other major players, but rather by buying into local markets one at a time.

It is difficult to see how this may work in Dell’s favor in the long run, as their attempts to move into consumer broadcast businesses like television and cell phones has not met with much success.

Even less obvious, but perhaps more important, Dell may become a major player (or at least a thorn in the side) as the FCC continues work on a database that can be used by wireless microphone users to locate available spectrum in the locales where they are operating.

You can read more about this discussion here.