Google Leaning Towards Bidding on U.S. Mobile Phone Airwave

Google's Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt stated yesterday what his company is leaning towards bidding on the upcoming U.S. mobile phone airwave auctions.
Schmidt made the statement during a conference of regulatory and industry leaders in Aspen where he said Google would "probably" move ahead with plans to bid for wireless spectrum freed up once broadcast television networks switch to digital from analog in 2009.

During the meeting T-Mobile USA's government relations chief Thomas Sugrue asked Schmidt if Google planned to take part in the auctions for wireless broadband networks, Schmidt replied that bidding "probably would be the way to answer that."

Last July Google formally announced it intended to participate in the federal government’s upcoming auction of wireless spectrum in the 700 megahertz (MHz) band should the Federal Communications Commission adopt a framework requiring greater competition and consumer choice. Google vowed to spend $4.6 billion to acquire the wireless spectrum.

Earlier this month, by a vote of 4-1, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) agreed with Google's request that the upcoming sale of airwaves have open access. However, the FCC stopped short of setting ground rules initially sought by Google that would require winning bidders to resell access to rivals at wholesale rates. This would require winning bidders of the airwaves to operate their wireless networks so it’s open to any mobile device, service or software application.

Google Leaning Towards Bidding on U.S. Mobile Phone Airwave

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