The FCC has decided to allow experimenation in the highly desirable portion of spectrum that currently carries over-the-air TV.

The spectrum, which falls below 900 megahertz, is generally viewed as the Park Avenue of the airwaves. It carries transmissions through walls and other obstructions much more easily than the slices of spectrum that are currently set aside for unlicensed uses–including wifi.

Wifi currently operates in the 2.4 GHz range, a much higher frequency than an unused VHF TV channel. If you’re old or poor enough to have actually used rabbit ears to watch TV, you’re probably well aware of the quality gap between lower-spectrum VHF and higher-spectrum UHF. VHF operates in 3 slots, ranging from 54 to 216 MHz. (See this spectrum map (pdf) for more.) UHF bumps up against the 900 MHz spectrum on which your cordless phone might operate. It’s fine for short-distance transmission, but the TV channels in the high double-digits show that there’s already a big loss of quality relative to the VHF sweet spot.

2.4 GHz spectrum is even less useful. It carries data for shorter distances and requires more power. It is also a rather narrow slice of spectrum that is overcrowded. Wifi, which is unlicensed, must accept interference from but not interfere with amateur radio users, who are the licensed, “primary” users of the spectrum. Many cordless phones also use this spectrum. This makes the current wifi spectrum rather crowded in many urban areas.

Permitting experimentation in the TV spectrum range will ease these problems, allowing people with more geek cred than me to create devices that carry data farther with less power consumption on less crowded airwaves. New devices will still need to avoid causing interference with TV stations, but a flip through the channels will tell you that, even in the NYC area, there are many unused TV channels in any city.

This opens the door for better wireless internet transmission, potentially so much better that it might provide a viable third pipe to compete with DSL and cable. Other unlicensed wireless transmissions will also be possible; as yet untold innovations may result.

While this is exciting, don’t go to Best Buy just yet. The FCC won’t finalize technical requirements for new devices until October, 2007, and devices won’t be for sale until the transition to digital TV happens in February, 2009.

P.S. This again helps illustrate two tangential points I’ve been pushing since this summer. First, policy ideas matter. The Republican Commissioners believe in deregulation, and this policy move fits nicely with that idea. The Democratic Commissioners believe in public interest media policy, and this policy fits nicely with that idea as well. In contrast, when the Democrats view a deregulatory or free-market move as against the public interest, e.g. the slow rebuilding of the old AT&T empire, the FCC gets into a partisan logjam–so much so that AT&T has voluntarily offered as-yet unnamed public-interest concessions to the Dems.

It also helps disprove the simplistic iron-triangle characterization of the agency. There is no group that has more power with the FCC than broadcasters, and they oppose the unlicensed use of TV spectrum. The next most-connected group is the big telecom firms, who want nothing resembling third pipe architecture to succeed. But the FCC went ahead anyway, in spite of concerns from those who “should” be able to dictate policy. For more on how the lack of a perfect iron triangle impacts the network neutrality debate, see this post.