CNET News.com

Wireless Internet service providers would be allowed to operate freely on new chunks of unused TV spectrum, according to two new bills in the U.S. Senate.

A pair of similar measures introduced Friday would give wireless device manufacturers the green light to develop products for unlicensed use on the broadband airwaves’ “white spaces”–that is, empty, unused channels in the broadcast TV bands.

Companies interested in deploying Wi-Fi networks covet the bands of spectrum on which broadcast television currently resides because of its inherent scientific properties. Signals at that frequency travel straighter and farther. Consumer advocates say using the spectrum would enable cheaper and easier set-up–and thus more widespread access for rural and low-income areas.

That’s one of the major reasons high-tech companies also have been clamoring for bumping broadcasters off the analog spectrum entirely. Congress has already mandated that movement–and the nation’s transition to all-digital TV broadcasts–must happen by February 2009.

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