• SIP
Broadband and Mobile Featured Article
April 07, 2008
Rumors of Google's Part in Driving Up Spectrum Price Proves to be True
By Susan J. Campbell TMCnet Contributing Editor
The FCC’s (News - Alert) wireless spectrum auction created quite the mix of rumors throughout the industry as critics suspected that some organizations had ulterior motives when making their bids. Google (News - Alert) in particular was a prime focus of attention as many thought the search giant may have been attempting to purposely drive up the price of the available spectrum.
Google has now confirmed the suspicion – or at least those that played a part. The company’s cohorts have admitted that it purposely bid on the 700MHz wireless auction as a ploy to drive up the purchase price of the spectrum to ensure that the provisions for open devices and applications would be applied to the winner.
Clint Boulton wrote in a eweek.com story about a blog posted on Thursday afternoon by, Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel and staff attorney Joseph Faber gave a quick spin on the activity of the auction.
"For three weeks at the end of January and early February, a small team of us holed up in double super secret 'war rooms' in Mountain View, CA and Washington, D.C. to bid on Google's behalf in the FCC spectrum auction," they wrote. "Bidding took place electronically, and literally billions of dollars were at stake with every mouse click."
The men went on to note that the main priority for Google was to be sure that the bidding on this particular spectrum was to reach the $4.6 billion reserve price that would be sure to trigger the open applications and open handsets license conditions. These were two of the four terms that the FCC agreed to last year.
The company’s ploy worked as planned. It’s no longer news that Verizon (News - Alert) won the spectrum and will pay more than the $4.7 billion that Google topped out at after several days as the highest bidder. Such a tactic is not that unusual as any eBay user knows, and is often used to advance the benefits of the seller. In this case, the benefits will be far-reaching.
It is important to note that Google also promised the FCC that in the event they won the spectrum, they would pay a little more than the $4.6 billion reserve price that the FCC wanted. Google however, made it clear from the get go that it did not intend to build a wireless network, but would instead partner with other vendors to use the spectrum.
In this blog, the men also were sure that Google receive the credit: "partly as a result of our bidding, consumers soon should have new freedom to get the most out of their mobile phones and other wireless devices."
While this move – however devious – it is still not guarantee that the Android mobile solution will appeal to the masses. The solution does have some very strong early support and even AT&T (News - Alert) said that it would consider it. After all, when it comes to revenue and market domination, pride really has nothing to do with it.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.
Google has now confirmed the suspicion – or at least those that played a part. The company’s cohorts have admitted that it purposely bid on the 700MHz wireless auction as a ploy to drive up the purchase price of the spectrum to ensure that the provisions for open devices and applications would be applied to the winner.
Clint Boulton wrote in a eweek.com story about a blog posted on Thursday afternoon by, Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel and staff attorney Joseph Faber gave a quick spin on the activity of the auction.
"For three weeks at the end of January and early February, a small team of us holed up in double super secret 'war rooms' in Mountain View, CA and Washington, D.C. to bid on Google's behalf in the FCC spectrum auction," they wrote. "Bidding took place electronically, and literally billions of dollars were at stake with every mouse click."
The men went on to note that the main priority for Google was to be sure that the bidding on this particular spectrum was to reach the $4.6 billion reserve price that would be sure to trigger the open applications and open handsets license conditions. These were two of the four terms that the FCC agreed to last year.
The company’s ploy worked as planned. It’s no longer news that Verizon (News - Alert) won the spectrum and will pay more than the $4.7 billion that Google topped out at after several days as the highest bidder. Such a tactic is not that unusual as any eBay user knows, and is often used to advance the benefits of the seller. In this case, the benefits will be far-reaching.
It is important to note that Google also promised the FCC that in the event they won the spectrum, they would pay a little more than the $4.6 billion reserve price that the FCC wanted. Google however, made it clear from the get go that it did not intend to build a wireless network, but would instead partner with other vendors to use the spectrum.
In this blog, the men also were sure that Google receive the credit: "partly as a result of our bidding, consumers soon should have new freedom to get the most out of their mobile phones and other wireless devices."
While this move – however devious – it is still not guarantee that the Android mobile solution will appeal to the masses. The solution does have some very strong early support and even AT&T (News - Alert) said that it would consider it. After all, when it comes to revenue and market domination, pride really has nothing to do with it.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.
