Reportedly, Google wants to bid for a serious chunk of wireless spectrum in the Federal Communications Commission auction coming up in January. The report, by Wall Street Journal, claims Google is prepared to bid on its own without any partners for a sum of up to $4.6 billion or higher.
Google would need to decide before a Dec. 3 FCC deadline for declaring intent to bid. "In the meantime, we are making all the necessary preparations to become an applicant to bid," said a Google spokesman to WSJ. "Our goal is to make sure that American consumers have more choices in an open and competitive wireless world," the spokesman added.
The FCC last month rejected again heavy pressure from those "wireless cartels" (described by former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Reed Hundt) and said it won't budge on the rules it announced for the 700 MHz spectrum. Specifically, the FCC requires winning bidders for a certain portion of the 700 MHz spectrum called the "C-block" open up their services to their customers' choice of equipment.
The auction, which was postponed by a week, is expected to raise at least $10 billion for the U.S. government from airwaves being returned by television broadcasters as they move to digital from analog signals in early 2009. The official date for the auction is now eight days later than previously announced, on January 24, 2008, reportedly as a small concession to companies deciding whether they still wanted to bid.
The open-access rules were adopted by the FCC at the suggestions brought by Frontline Wireless and Google.
Google already reportedly operates an experimental advanced wireless network at its headquarters in Mountain View, California, that could be used if it wins the spectrum and decides to become a national mobile carrier. The network, operated under a special license from the FCC, allegedly tests the newly announced Android platform.
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