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Will Google Own the Cell World Too? NewsMax.com
In a move that could dramatically impact the U.S. cellphone industry, the Federal Communications Commission is planning to auction $15 billion worth of public airwaves for cellphone use. And Internet search giant Google sees the auction as an opportunity to enter – and perhaps dominate – the lucrative cellphone market. The company has said it will spend up to $4.6 billion for some of the available airwaves, and has already spent millions lobbying public officials to set auction rules favorable to Google. But wireless carriers including AT&T and Verizon have also been spending money in an effort to thwart Google. The FCC said it will announce the rules for the auction on Tuesday, and the auction itself will take place in January. The airwaves in the auction are in frequencies being abandoned by television stations as they convert to digital broadcast.
Story Continues Below Currently, major wireless carriers for the most part decide which Web sites, music-download services and search engines their customers can access with their phones, according to the Washington Post. Owners of Apple's iPhone, for instance, can use only AT&T. Google instead wants the FCC to require that the winner of the auction build a network that will be open to all cellphones and services. Consumers would be able to buy a wireless phone at a store and pick any carrier they wanted. They could also choose whatever software they want to use on their phones. "When you buy a computer, they don't ask what kind of Internet service you have, and the computer can run any application or service," Blair Levin, a former FCC official, told the New York Times. "That doesn't exist in the wireless world. That's where Google wants to go with this auction." Naturally, AT&T and other wireless carriers are concerned that Google's open network would loosen their grip on how consumers use their cellphones, and they too have been spending heavily on a lobbying campaign. Google, for its part, has been inviting prominent politicians to tour its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, the Post reports. And last week the online video site YouTube, which is owned by Google, sponsored the Democrats' presidential debate. The airwaves up for auction are especially valuable because they will likely be the last available by auction for several decades.
© NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved. Editor's note:
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