Hispanic Tech Group Disses Portable White-Spaces Devices

“The day before Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin talked of the importance of the digital-TV transition to the Hispanic community, given that one-third of Spanish-speaking households are over-the-air-only, the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership sent a letter to the chairman about the potential impact on Hispanics viewers should the FCC allow unlicensed devices in the so-called white spaces in the DTV band (the National Association of Broadcasters prefers to call them “interference zones”).

According to a copy of the letter dated Oct. 1, HTTP president Manuel Mirabal told Martin that allowing the devices — which broadcasters and some of the FCC’s own testing suggested could interfere with DTV pictures — could “undermine the ability of Hispanic television viewers to have access to interference-free over-the air television in the digital era.””

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