Manhasset, N.Y. - Three prominent U.S. engineers and researchers have delivered a brief asserting that the unlicensed use of white space in the TV bands will not interfere with digital-TV transmissions. The brief contradicts the position of broadcasters, whose objections have stymied a May 2004 Federal Communications Commission initiative to open up spectrum by letting wireless devices such as Wi-Fi operate in the TV bands.

TV bands are coveted for their long range and ability to penetrate buildings. According to the brief, even after the completion of the DTV transition and the reallocation of TV channels 52 to 69, only a fraction of the 294 MHz of prime spectrum allocated to DTV services will actually be used in most markets.

The brief's authors are well known: Michael Marcus, former associate chief for technology at the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, now retired; communications consultant Paul Kolodzy, former chairman of the FCC's Spectrum Policy Task Force and former director of the Center for Wireless Network Security at the Stevens Institute of Technology; and Andrew Lippman, founding associate director of the MIT Media Lab from 1983 to 2001, who today codirects the Institute-wide Communications Futures Program and the Viral Radio Program.

The brief, which can be found at www.newamerica.net, dispels arguments against the use of the listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol and of geolocation and automated checking against a database of frequency assignments. Together, LBT and geolocation could be used to identify and avoid channels in use in a particular area.

The paper also rebuts DTV broadcasters' claims that TV channel reuse would cause consumer confusion and delay the penetration of DTV receivers to the level mandated in current law before broadcasters cease analog transmissions.