Friday, July 20, 2007

Google May Bid For US Spectrum

Ever since the net nutrality debate in the US started to kick off, with words from a telco executive (iirc, from AT&T) along the lines that Google owed them money, I've figured that there was going to be war between Google and the telcos in the US.(A quick aside - I've always felt that the executive got it the wrong way around - if anybody owes anybody extra money, it would be the telcos owing Google, Yahoo, etc - as without the content then no one would subscribe to their internet services, but I digress). First Google acquired GrandCentral and now they're commiting to compete in a US spectrum auction. They want the spectrum to be open, so they've said they would put thier hat in the ring if the FCC follows principles of openness around the spectrum. I have no idea if 4.6 gigadollars is a serious competitive bid or just a warning shot (apparently, it's the reserve price), because I have not been following the 700 Mhz sell off as I don't live in the US. Either way, war is coming.

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