Didn't see this coming:
With the transfer of telecasting from
analog to digital, slated for Feb. 17, 2009, a huge section of the
spectrum has become available. Most of it was auctioned earlier this
year to large communications companies such as Verizon and AT&T.
However, there also exists something known as white space: unused
spectrum pathways that exist between digital TV signals. Companies such
as Google and Microsoft want the space opened up to unlicensed wireless
devices so they might develop new technology and services to operate
within it.
However, theatre
producers and Actors' Equity Association have joined several other
special-interest groups that want to delay the opening because, they
contend, a sudden proliferation of wireless devices will strain the
spectrum and interfere with Broadway's wireless microphone systems.
Further, they say the technology designed to regulate expanded traffic
on crowded airwaves has yet to work consistently, and field tests
conducted at the Majestic Theatre over the summer were unqualified
failures, according to Tom Ferrugia, director of government relations
for the Broadway League and a witness to the tests.