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About a decade ago, wireless heart monitors hooked to patients at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas went on the fritz, causing much scrambling among the building's engineering team.

The culprit, as it turned out, was interference from a nearby broadcast television station, which was testing its digital signal on the same channel where some of the medical devices operated, as detailed in the journal Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology a few years ago. The Federal Communications Commission ultimately cordoned off spectrum just for that purpose, although migrating there was largely voluntary.

Now, hospital administrators and medical device manufacturers fear similar problems could happen again if federal regulators don't place limits on requests by Google, Microsoft, and other high-tech companies to free up spectrum "white spaces" between television channels.

Those companies and consumer advocacy groups have been agitating in recent years for unlicensed use of those unused pockets because their signals can propagate long distances and penetrate walls, making them uniquely disposed to gigabits-per-second mobile broadband service--"Wi-Fi on steroids" or "Wi-Fi 2.0," as Google telecommunications counsel Rick Whitt has taken to calling it.

The medical community, however, wants to ensure those plans don't imperil the safety of its patients.

"If a new white space application that's operating thousands of times more powerfully came online, either in the hospital or outside the hospital, it could very well directly interfere with the telemetry system and prevent patient monitoring," Tim Kottak, engineering general manager for GE Healthcare's systems and wireless division, said in a telephone interview with CNET News.com this week. "The whole system could be taken out, just like what happened at Baylor."

Since the late 1980s, medical telemetry devices, as they're known, have been used in virtually every hospital throughout the United States to keep tabs on patients' vital signs, such as their heart rate and blood oxygen levels, Kottak said.

A patient wears GE Healthcare's Apex Pro, a wireless medical telemetry device. Telemetry devices continuously measure a variety of vital signs and transmit data to a central location.

(Credit: GE Health Care)

It works like this: The patient wears a small transmitter that's connected to a wireless network within the hospital, which consists of an antenna system and receivers. Through that system, doctors and nurses can generally check on the patient from anywhere in the hospital, without needing to be bedside, and the patient is meanwhile free to walk around to visit labs, get X-rays, and work on recovery without being tethered to equipment.

Unlike the National Association of Broadcasters, which has been the loudest opponent of the high-tech industry's white spaces plans, the medical industry isn't asking for a ban on all unlicensed TV white spaces uses by portable mobile devices. (General Electric, of course, also owns NBC Universal, a major broadcasting entity, but Kottak said his division isn't speaking for NBC in this matter.)

Rather, GE and others are seeking a compromise of sorts, in which certain channels would be off-limits, and device operators would be required to alert hospitals and other medical centers before deploying them nearby.

After the Baylor incident, FCC decided to set aside channel 37 of the broadcast TV band as a protected area for exclusive use by medical telemetry devices. But the FCC also allowed hospitals to continue operating existing devices on other TV white spaces, with the understanding that they would move be best served by moving to channel 37 eventually. It's operators of those older systems, which can cost millions of dollars to upgrade, that could face the rudest awakening if new gadgets come online without their knowledge, the medical industry says.

GE, for its part, would like to see the FCC continue to block off not only channel 37 but also adjacent channels 36 and 38, in an effort to create a greater buffer for its devices. It also wants the FCC to require new white spaces users to refrain from releasing new devices that use another popular location for medical telemetry devices--channels 33 to 35--for one year after any rules are developed so that hospitals have ample time to leave that spectrum. In addition, it's asking for the FCC to limit the power output of the new devices to reduce interference potential.

The American Society for Healthcare Engineering, a division of the American Hospital Association, has also weighed in, asking the Federal Communications Commission to require that anyone operating devices in the unused TV channels notify hospitals, nursing homes and other health facilities within range of the signals beforehand.

"With adequate advance notice, health care facilities operating these legacy systems can take steps either to identify the source of any interference and address it or to replace equipment that can no longer serve its intended purpose with newer, protected (channel 37) installations," Dale Woodin, deputy executive director of the American Society for Healthcare Engineering, wrote in a filing with the FCC.

Their recommendations may not be far off from reality. Google, for its part, has already embraced at least some of those suggestions, proposing in a recent filing with the FCC that unlicensed white spaces be prohibited from operating in a "safe harbor" between channels 36 and 38, specifically citing concerns over medical telemetry devices.

Brian Peters, a spokesman for the Wireless Innovation Alliance, which is pushing for the unlicensed white-space use, said discussions with GE are "ongoing" and voiced confidence that they can reach an agreeable solution that allows for unlicensed use of mobile broadband devices. The Wireless Innovation Alliance's members include companies like Google, Microsoft, Dell and HP, and consumer advocacy groups like Public Knowledge, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and Free Press.

"We are also fully confident that the FCC engineers can write the rules necessary to prevent interference to medical devices," Peters said in an e-mail interview. "The FCC is the expert agency, and they've been managing medical device spectrum issues for years."

Even if the medical devices industry reaches an agreement with the high-tech companies, however, the broader white spaces debate is likely to continue. The National Association of Broadcasters hasn't budged from its position that allowing unlicensed devices on TV bands is "a guaranteed recipe for producing interference and should not be allowed under any circumstances." It also claims more than 70 members of Congress share its concerns, although that opposition is far from universal.

The FCC is currently retesting early-stage equipment designed to "sniff" for broadcast signals to ensure new devices don't operate there and cause interference. But it's not expected to issue any rules for the white spaces for another several months. Even then, the spectrum won't be available for use until at least February 2009, when over-the-air broadcasters are required to vacate that band as part of the congressionally mandated shift to all-digital television.

Google on Monday said it has a plan to have American consumers from Manhattan to rural North Dakota surfing the Web on handheld gadgets at gigabits-per-second speeds by the 2009 holiday season.

The company, joined by other heavyweights like Microsoft and Dell, has long been lobbying for the Federal Communications Commission to free up unused broadcast TV channels known as "white spaces" for unlicensed use by personal devices. That portion of the TV band is highly prized because it can propagate long distances and through obstacles.

It also possesses the bandwidth to support vastly faster data rates than today's standard Internet service offerings--"Wi-Fi on steroids" or "Wi-Fi 2.0," as Richard Whitt, Google's telecommunications counsel, put it in a Monday morning conference call.

In a renewed effort to get the FCC on board with the idea, Google filed a six-page letter late on Friday that attempts to erase lingering concerns from TV broadcasters and microphone manufacturers about harmful interference caused by the entry of new devices.

"We're doing this because we want everybody to be satisfied with this process," Whitt said. "We think it's the right time to put these ideas in the record and see where they go."

Google isn't interested in becoming a wireless service provider or building a network of its own, Whitt said. It does, however, envision the white spaces as a "unique opportunity to provide ubiquitous wireless access for all Americans" and a prime spot for use of mobile handsets running its open-source Android platform. Google hopes to start rolling out Android devices, which are being developed in conjunction with a 34-company consortium, as soon as summer or fall of this year, Whitt said.

Even if the FCC signs off, the offerings wouldn't be immediate. The spectrum won't be ready for use until at least February 2009, when over-the-air broadcasters are required to vacate that band as part of the congressionally mandated shift to all-digital television.

The FCC also isn't expected to issue any rules for use of the spectrum for another several months, Whitt said. Agency engineers are still testing early-stage devices submitted by Microsoft and Phillips for interference issues.

Avoiding interference
In hopes of nudging that process in its favor, Google's new filing describes a multipronged approach aimed at avoiding interference. Building upon suggestions made in a filing by Motorola last fall, it said any new unlicensed TV white-spaces devices would be blocked from transmitting signals unless they had received a sort of "permission to transmit" message. Wireless microphones could also be outfitted with "inexpensive" beacons that would send out a signal to white-spaces devices that says " don't come here," by Whitt's description.

In addition, Google proposes setting up a "safe harbor," between channels 36 and 38, where unlicensed white-space devices would not be allowed to operate, but wireless microphones and other licensed devices would. It also urges the FCC not to discount the promise of "spectrum-sensing" technologies, which, for example, are supported by 802.11a-based Wi-Fi to protect military radars from interference.

Google also offered to provide no-cost "technical support" to third parties hoping to use the white spaces, should they be opened up.

Even if the regulators ultimately approve use of the white spaces, "no product will come to market unless the FCC can verify that the device does not interfere with TV or wireless microphone signals," Whitt said.

Representatives from the National Association of Broadcasters and wireless microphone manufacturers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

Google's renewed white-spaces push comes just days after the FCC ended an auction of the remaining portion of the 700MHz broadcast TV spectrum that's being vacated for the digital switch next year. The company had been active in the event, lobbying beforehand for "open-access" conditions allowing consumers to attach whatever devices or run whatever applications they please.

The search giant had committed to bidding $4.6 billion for the "open-access" spectrum block, but last week, the FCC announced that it was Verizon Wireless, not Google, that had won those licenses.

Whitt said he couldn't say the proposal had nothing to do with the auction results, but because of FCC rules, he isn't able to comment further on Google's involvement in the auction until the end of next week.

The Federal Communications Commission will begin the second phase of lab testing of prototype devices that use the "white space" between TV channels to transmit wireless communication signals.

Phase II of the testing, which is being conducted by the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, begins on January 24.

The testing is part of a proceeding that will determine if the "white space" or unused spectrum between broadcast TV channels can be used for wireless service without interfering with TV broadcasts.

Technology companies say that using the spectrum between the TV channels could unleash a wave of innovation. But TV broadcasters and Sprint Nextel, the third-largest cell phone carrier in the U.S., oppose the use of "white spaces" for wireless services.

The first phase of testing, which ended in July, stirred some controversy. According to the FCC's report, a Microsoft prototype device failed to detect broadcast signals, but one submitted by Koninklijke Philips Electronics worked just fine. Microsoft has refuted the results because it claims the device used in the test was damaged, therefore invalidating the results.

Now with Phase II, Microsoft will get a chance to redeem itself. The company has already submitted another prototype device, according to the FCC. Three other companies, Adaptrum, Motorola and Philips, have also submitted devices. Google, which is bidding in the 700MHz spectrum auction later this month, wasn't named by the FCC as submitting a device for testing. But the company did submit its own white space testing results to the FCC in December.

Microsoft and Philips Electronics are pushing the Federal Communications Commission to retest devices that detect broadcast TV signals.

On Friday, the companies filed results of their most recent test results that showed their devices effectively detected broadcast signals. In an ex parte document filed with the FCC, the companies said they had conducted over 1,000 measurements in New York and California and they determined that the prototype devices were able to detect over-the-air TV signals at very low power levels with 100 percent accuracy.

"What the results of these tests mean is that with we can determine with great certainty whether a TV channel is vacant or occupied," said Ed Thomas, technology policy adviser and partner at Harris Wiltshire & Grannis, the firm representing the White Space Coalition. "And if the channel is occupied, the device won't transmit any signals over that channel."

Technology companies, such as Microsoft and Philips, would like to build devices that can use unlicensed spectrum between the TV channels. This spectrum is known as "white spaces". And companies, which include Microsoft, Intel, Google, EarthLink and Dell, believe having access to this spectrum could unleash a wave of wireless innovation. They've formed a coalition called the White Space Coalition that has been lobbying the FCC and Congress to open up this spectrum.

Not surprisingly, TV broadcasters oppose allowing any unlicensed device to use white-space spectrum because, they argue, these devices would interfere with television broadcasts, potentially harming the federally mandated transition from analog to digital TV service.

Thomas, who presented the findings to FCC engineers on Thursday, said that he hoped the FCC would conduct its own field tests to corroborate the coalition's findings.

The FCC has already tested both prototypes. The Philips device was tested in the laboratory and performed well. But the Microsoft device, which was tested in the field, failed to detect digital TV signals. Microsoft says the results of the FCC test are invalid, because the device the FCC tested was defective. Thomas said that the coalition's most recent field tests prove that the device actually does work.

"We've put a tremendous amount of data on the record with the FCC," Thomas said. "And our hope and prayer is that the FCC conducts the same tests and gets the same results. If they do, we are confident that the FCC will accept our position."

A spokesman for the FCC said that Chairman Kevin Martin said at a recent press conference that the FCC is willing to do additional testing on prototype devices.

A device made to find and use open areas of the spectrum band has received a failing grade from the Federal Communications Commission.

The companies involved likely don't feel too bad, after all, it was the FCC's idea to begin with. Last December, the commission called for suggestions for wireless devices that would sniff out and use the portions of the spectrum not utilized by TV broadcasters. Thus, the White Space Coalition was born, which includes Dell, EarthLink, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft and Philips Electronics.

Apparently the prototype the coalition submitted didn't cut it. Not only did the test product not detect broadcast signals, it was prone to actually interfering with broadcasts, according to the commission's report.

The FCC does note in its evaluation that the submitted device is just the coalition's first crack at the technology. "Accordingly, we are open to the possibility that future prototype devices may exhibit improved performance," it said.