WASHINGTON (AP) - Losing the audio feed during "Monday Night Football" may
seem like a crisis for some sports fans, but it's nothing compared to losing the
signal that monitors a critically ill hospital patient.
The technical glitches share a potential source: the proposed use of
unoccupied TV airwaves for high-speed Internet service across the country.
While television networks and wireless microphone users have been fighting
the idea, the medical community is also sounding the alarm over possible
interference from unlicensed portable gizmos operating in a nearby spectrum. The
spectrum's valuable wireless real estate has attracted technology companies and
consumer advocates who say it shouldn't remain vacant.
Hospitals and medical device makers say using empty channels for unlicensed
uses is a matter of life and death, not just a source of static for
entertainment outlets. It could disrupt the monitoring of patients' heart rates,
blood oxygen levels and other vital signs at medical facilities.
"If they stop functioning for a period of time, you don't know the patient's
physiological condition. This is patient care at its most basic level," says
Dale Woodin, executive director of the American Society of Healthcare
Engineering, an arm of the American Hospital Association.
Medical device maker GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Co., has also
weighed in, asking the Federal Communications Commission to proceed carefully in
its decision to permit broadband use through those idle channels, commonly known
as "white spaces."
In an FCC filing last week, the company requested stricter standards to
protect wireless patient-monitoring equipment, such as heart, blood pressure and
respiration devices, from being overwhelmed by other equipment operating in
nearby channels.
The FCC is conducting tests to find an efficient and interference-free way
to use the spectrum for broadband, but several trial devices have either broken
down or failed.
The white spaces, prized for their ability to travel long distances and go
through walls, will be made available when the nation makes a transition to
digital TV next February. After the switch, broadcasters will occupy channels 2
through 51, but almost half those channels in some cities will remain fallow,
especially in rural areas.
Technology companies, including Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Dell Inc.,
have said low-powered, unlicensed and portable devices such as cell phones,
laptops and BlackBerrys, can operate in the empty spectrum without harming other
signals. They say it will provide affordable high-speed Internet and spur
innovation.
But its potential effect on everything from baseball calls to banjo picking
has attracted increasingly loud and powerful opponents. Television broadcasters,
telecom carriers and wireless microphone makers and users, including Major
League Baseball and the Grand Ole Opry, have rejected several proposals from the
tech coalition.
"The white spaces proposals being considered by the FCC could turn 'Music
City' into a silent city unless they get it right," Steve Gibson, music director
and producer of broadcast audio for the Grand Ole Opry, said in a statement
Tuesday. The country music venue is operated by Nashville, Tenn.-based Gaylord
Entertainment Co.
Unlike the broadcasters and wireless mic users, GE Healthcare and ASHE say
they're not against the technology coalition's proposal, but want tougher
technical standards implemented. They've have had several discussions with the
FCC and technology companies to find a compromise.
Attorney Scott Blake Harris, who represents several technology companies,
said Tuesday the coalition has agreed to the substance of GE Healthcare's
proposal and that it presents no "insurmountable technical hurdles."
Since the 1980s, hospitals across the country have been using channels 33 to
36 to operate unlicensed wireless patient-monitoring devices. In 2000, the FCC
allocated channel 37 for exclusive use of medical-monitoring equipment after a
1998 incident in which a TV broadcaster interfered with a nearby hospital's
low-powered heart monitors.
While most hospitals have migrated to the protected channel, some still
operate outside it.
GE Healthcare, one of the top manufacturers of such devices, previously
proposed that if white spaces are approved for Internet use, the FCC should
prohibit such operation within channels 33 to 36 for at least one year -- until
February 2010. This would give dozens more hospitals monitoring thousands of
patients more time to migrate to the protected channel 37, said Tim Kottak,
engineering general manager of systems and wireless for GE Healthcare.
"Some are very aware of this pending (initiative), but others have no idea
and that's a risk," he said. However, hospitals aren't required to move to the
protected channel.
Those measures may not be enough. Unlicensed, portable Internet devices
operating in the adjacent empty channels next to the exclusive medical-device
one may be too powerful, bleed into it and "overload" hospitals systems, which
normally emit weaker wireless signals, said Kottak.
The medical community wants the FCC to enact stricter standards for how much
power Internet devices can emit in the adjacent channels to lessen risk to
medical equipment.
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