Microsoft chairman Bill Gates called on lawmakers Friday to make digital television a reality.
In a letter to House and Senate lawmakers, Gates and other high-tech officials appealed to Congress on grounds that speeding the transition to digital television will free-up radio spectrum for wireless broadband services, especially in rural and poor areas, the Associated Press reported.
Other benefits of clearing the spectrum include improving police, fire and other first-responder radio communications.
Some of the frequencies that would be vacated in the transition from traditional analog to digital TV were promised to public safety officials in 1997, the AP reported.