FCC nixes white space broadband

US communications regulator the FCC has thrown a spanner into the works of a plan to deliver broadband services via the white space between TV channels.

A collaboration of tech firms headed up by Google, Intel, HP, Microsoft and Dell, had submitted the plan as the White Space Coalition. The coalition has developed a gadget that can be used to transmit a high speed web service on spectrum locations between channels, without interference to television.

However, the prototype gadgets failed the FCC’s tests and caused interference on the TV channels.

The coalition will apparently work to fix the glitches.