Google Pledges $4.6B for 700Mhz Auction

Google Inc. on Friday said it would pony up $4.6 billion to buy wireless spectrum if the FCC adopts an open-access framework in the federal government’s upcoming 700MHz auction.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin pledging its participation, should the FCC adopt license conditions the search giant laid out in a filing with the FCC on July 9. The company urged the adoption of four types of "open" platforms as part of the license conditions, which would effectively prevent any sort of walled garden exclusivity for service providers:

• Open applications: Consumers should be able to download and use any software applications, content or services they desire.

• Open devices: Consumers should be able to use a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer.

• Open services: Third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms.

• Open networks: Third parties (like ISPs) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee's wireless network.

The FCC has been debating how to structure the auction to promote the most amount of competition, with the goal of creating a third option to square off against RBOCs and cablecos in the last mile.

Auctioning off large, nationwide swaths of the spectrum – previously used for television and known to have propagation characteristics ripe for developing pervasive wireless broadband – is something the commission has said it would entertain only if a nationwide competitor, such as a Google or an eBay, pledges to come to the table. That’s because having large swaths available in their absence would be unaffordable for smaller entrants, and would give incumbents an opportunity to buy most the spectrum themselves, effectively shutting out competition.

Federal Communications Commission www.fcc.gov
Google Inc. www.google.com

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