Well, Google can’t win them all: the search giant--teamed up with tech titans including Microsoft, Dell, Intel, EarthLink, Hewlett-Packard and Philips--has been lobbying the FCC to use soon-to-be-freed-up TV spectrum for portable Internet/wireless devices. But the so-called White Spaces Coalition had a setback this week when the FCC issued the results of their four-month-long investigation: the devices submitted for testing either interfered with TV signals or could not detect the signals to skirt around them. The report said: “our tests also found that the transmitter in [a] prototype device is capable of causing interference to TV broadcasting and wireless microphones.” For example, a test of one of the prototypes’ ability to sense microphone communications, such as those used during concerts and televised sporting events, found that it often confused a microphone signal for digital TV broadcasts, the report said.

Broadcasters, sports organizations, phone companies and cable operators, as well as their vendors, have been complaining about this kind of interference for some time now (we detail some of the grievances here). The spectrum will be freed up by 2009, when broadcasters will move their analog services over to digital.

The Washington Post says the coalition companies “remain confident that unlicensed television spectrum can be used without interference,” so expect this story to continue.