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The US regulator, the FCC, is determined to clear many major decisions before the election and potential change of government, which would almost certainly lead to a new FCC chief being appointed early next year. On the day of the election, November 4, the agency hopes to conduct several key votes - on whether the white spaces within the broadcast spectrum can be used for open devices as proposed by Google and Microsoft; whether proposals on termination fees will be pushed through; and on the pending mergers of Verizon and Alltel, and Sprint Xohm and Clearwire. Also, there should be clarity on the auction rules for the AWS-3 spectrum, earmarked for an operator who would offer a national free broadband network, funded by advertising and premium services. This has been heavily opposed by T-Mobile, which fears interference with its AWS-1 3G spectrum.

Among the most controversial, and most important for the state of US broadband access, is the white spaces debate. It looks highly likely, despite last minute challenges from the broadcasters' lobby, that the FCC will open up the white spaces on an unlicensed basis, subject to various anti-interference mechanisms being supported by device makers and providers.

The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) issued two major reports within days of each other in the past week. One states that white space devices with geolocation and sensing technologies can be used with some conditions without interference to existing users such as broadcasters and wireless microphones. This followed another report that the proposed AWS-3 network (in 2155-2180MHz) would not interfere with AWS-1.

T-Mobile had performed its own interference tests - identical to the FCC's - that it claimed highlighted potential problems. T-Mobile recently reminded the FCC it has a legal obligation to protect AWS-1 licensees from potential interference so lawsuits seem highly likely.

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