The Wall Street Journal is quoting “people familiar with the matter” saying that Google will announce a bid for the 700 MHz wireless spectrum Friday.
Google first expressed interesting in bidding in July, when it sent a letter to the FCC demanding that the new bandwidth have four requirements: open applications, open devices, open services and open networks. The FCC only adopted two of Google’s recommendations when it released the terms for the auction July 31, with support for open applications and open devices, but with no requirement for open services or open networks.
With the auction due in January and bidders having to declare their intentions to bid by December 3, there has been no shortage of speculation as to whether Google would or wouldn’t participate.
The ongoing mystery is exactly what Google plans to do with the spectrum. Since we last wrote about the auction Google has announced the Open Handset Alliance (Android) which includes T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel; in effect Google has an existing partnership with two of the four major existing mobile players in the United States. If Google is seeking to become a cellphone operator in its own right, this wouldn’t be well received by T-Mobile or Sprint Nextel; unless of course Google is already talking about partnerships where by one (or both) of their partners provides the towers and service provision whilst Google maintains spectrum ownership, whilst presumably dictating access terms that would favor open access and/ or Android itself.
From a consumer viewpoint Google entering the auction process is a positive step forward, even if we don’t know Google’s intentions yet. Competition is always good, and Google owned spectrum would provide downward pressure on cell phone rates that will benefit users on all networks, not just those using a Google owned service.
WSJ seems to virtually always get the first leak on any major Google matter.
Perhaps this mutually beneficial relationship between the two is based on the potential positive effect these proactive leaks might have on Google’s stock.
WSJ being a subscription based site – then gets tons of publicity and links from being the sole outlet for these leaks.
SEW
true, the story was behind a firewall and they do get good leaks from Google
No matter what they bid, we will up it by 25%!
Not because we want it, because they do!
http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com
Awesome for US innovation and economy!
this is going to be fun…
My bet is that Google is gonna bid low on purpose: they don’t need to own spectrum, they need to have access to networks. Their campaign has had the effect of getting Verizon to open up, and the other will follow.
They can’t withdraw from the race after all the noise they.made, bu they can bid to lose, and then take advantage of the new scenario
Verizon facilitated this with their timing, not to have google as a competitor
why spend billions to buy spectrum, when you can piggyback on everyone else’s?
I like the combo usage of ‘whilst’
I know that the spectrum was used for TV channels, but I wonder what kind of premium there is on spectrums in general – will other frequencies by auctioned off? When? etc.
I believe Microsoft should also bid on the spectrum. Microsoft just want to control everything and make a bit of money. This would allow them to do it.
Microsoft has the cash on hand to buy the entire spectrum.
Now imagine Microsoft with its own wireless spectrum, its iphone clone, its amazon kindle clone, wireless xbox, with live search ads.
Microsoft, will allow all hardware vendor to make hardware for there windows platform and it will be wireless. No Google, No Yahoo to compete with.
Crazy, maybe, maybe not
well, for the RF minded, 700 mhz is .5 meter wavelength – an awesome band to operate on because of its ability to penetrate most modern building materials, and to work well in multipath environments. In other words, 700 is great for non-line of sight. It’s a whole different animal than the current crop of CDMA and GSM from the POV of cell site engineering – you can use fewer towers, and have fewer difficulties for a given level of service quality.
Regarding the build out – the capital always comes from somewhere – even companies like ATT and Sprint often use debt instruments to build out networks. And for a moment pulling aside the veil of the future, I think that the kind of services that Google might make available will be sufficiently different than the incumbents, so that network infrastructure partnerships might work.
And, there are plenty of RF engineering firms that will put up cell sites for anyone with folding money. Big fun WiMAX VOIP data unified services. Yum.
Google seems to be championing the cause of Open Source. It even tried to computerise all books on Earth.
http://tekno-wo...ld.blogspot.com
Duncan, Are the links in your copy added automatically because you seem to miss the relevant keyword by a few spaces?
thats great news, we’ll get to see some more compitition
SticKer
YES DUNCAN, WSJ WAS RIGHT AGAIN….
http://www.goog...m_20071130.html
http://googlebl...um-auction.html
Competition is always a good thing if it brings positive changes into play.
I am definitely going to keep my eye out for this one.
Hehe, ale ładnie piszesz.
Fajnie.
Dzięki za dawke dobrego humoru.
Pawka