Google angers wireless manufacturers

Wireless audio-equipment manufacturers and producers of live events are up in arms against Google's efforts to open up a little-used patch of radio spectrum, says Wired.com.

What's being contested is the so-called "white space" spectrum, the vacant bands between ultra-high frequency television channels.

As US broadcasters transition from analogue to digital transmission, the unused spectrum has become a battleground, pitting audio professionals and organisations such as the National Football League, movie studios and Broadway producers against Google.

Telecoms are beginning to experience clogged networks, says Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO of Redknee Solutions, which sells software to the wireless industry, says The Globe and Mail.

He attributes the congestion to smartphones and plug-in modems for laptops, the advent of large "bucket" plans that offer customers "unlimited" data, and new services on the Web such as YouTube and Sling Media that consume great chunks of bandwidth.

And there are already anecdotal signs of congestion in the wireless industry - on blogs and tech forums, some users talk about download speeds declining.

Japan will start an aggressive push to market its mobile technology abroad, especially the nation's popular "wallet phone", a government official said, according to UK Press.

Although Japan boasts some of the most sophisticated cellphones in the world, delivering high-speed Internet connections, digital TV broadcasts and video downloads, the nation has failed to make its handsets, wireless technology and mobile services hits outside Japan.

The latest initiative spearheaded by the government, with an industry group of Japanese carriers and manufacturers, is an effort to help Japan catch up in wooing global users, said Masayuki Ito, official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.