Somewhere, the National Association of Broadcasters is crying. They've spent a lot of money on PR campaigns that suggest using "white space" spectrum, freed from the migration to digital TV, for a new broadband delivery method will result in a wireless apocalypse. However, the final FCC report on white space broadband was released yesterday, and it suggests that the devices, if designed properly with sensing technologies and utilizing geo-location databases, should be able to detect and avoid nearby spectrum. What does that mean for you? It means you could be seeing a brand new (and hopefully inexpensive) wireless broadband delivery method that may be particularly well suited for under-served rural markets.

While telco-friendly FCC boss Kevin Martin traditionally doesn't do anything to anger the phone companies (who, like NAB, don't want the added competition), he appears to be supporting this push ahead of a final commission vote on November 4, which would prevent a partisan blockade of the technology.While normally a push like this might have been crushed by phone, cable and broadcast industry lobbyists, the white space broadband push has some deep-pocketed supporters. Google, Microsoft, Dell and others have been pushing the technology hard -- obviously eager to sell new hardware, software and advertisements via a route not controlled by incumbent operators. The idea also obviously has strong support from consumer advocates, who'd love to see additional competition brought to bear on duopoly/monopoly markets.

Update: NAB, as you might expect, has issued a press release saying that if you read the FCC study the way they would like you to read the FCC study, it says the exact opposite. The group ignores successful tests of white space devices and focuses on the failure of an early Microsoft prototype as evidence the entire idea belongs in the digital trash heap. Something tells me that the posturing, lobbying, and misdirection in this fight has only just begun....