Shares of Google surged $27.36, to $460.91 amid a sharp rise in the stock market.  Google sees the white-space spectrum as a natural place to operate a new class of phones and wireless devices based on Android, Google’s software that a variety of major equipment makers plan to use to build Internet-ready phones.  The company also said that, in general, it stands to benefit whenever consumers have easier access to the Internet. Google’s primary business is selling online ads as people perform Web searches.  The filing came less than two weeks after Bill Gates, a founder of Google’s rival, Microsoft, urged the agency to free up the white-space spectrum so it could be used to expand access of wireless broadband.  Google and Microsoft are part of a coalition of technology companies that has been lobbying the F.C.C. to allow unlicensed use of white-space spectrum.  The group also includes Dell, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and the North American unit of Philips Electronics. The idea is opposed by broadcasters and makers of wireless microphones, who fear the devices would cause interference.  The FCC is testing equipment to see if the white-space spectrum can be used without interfering with television broadcasts.  In a compromise intended to mollify some interest groups opposed to expanding use of white-space spectrum, Google proposed a “safe harbor” on channels 36-38 of the freed-up analog TV spectrum for exclusive use by wireless microphones, along with medical telemetry and radio astronomy devices. In effect, no white-space devices could use these channels.  Google said “spectrum-sensing technologies” could be used that would automatically check to see whether a channel was open before using it, thereby avoiding interference with other devices. It said such technology was already being used by the military.  A proposal being studied by the F.C.C. would create two categories of users for the airwaves: one for low-power, personal, portable devices, and a second group for fixed commercial operations.
In comments filed with the F.C.C., Google outlined plans for low-power devices that use local wireless airwaves to access the “white space” between television channels.