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Google Ready to Bid on 700 MHz
Seppanen Style writes "The 700MHz spectrum auction looks like it's going to be heated. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has all but confirmed that Google will make a play for the spectrum that will be on offer next January. 'In effect, this could give Google control of the entire pipe between customers and Google servers, a move that could be very good for business strategy, even if the wireless network is not a major profit center. Companies never like to be at the mercy of other companies, and Google is no exception.'"
Last big spectrum givawa^d^d^d^d^d^d^d auction I think most of the spectrum went for some sum just north of the cost of a large mocha. If the telco's get scared pissless from Google here we might just see a very heated auction rather than the collusion assgrab many of these things are in America.
This major for Google, and thus major for the Telecoms.
Google has many multiple billions in cash, and can always raise more.
vs.
The entire sucky telecom industry.
Not only that, but Google ace is open-standards.
May the best bidder win, and I hope it is open standards.
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
The fact that Google offered to make a $4.6 billion bid for the spectrum implies (1) Google has $4.6 billion in capital available, and (2) Google has a use for that spectrum.
It seems reasonable to assume they would make a bid, even without the four openness rules - after all, if they win they can make their own openness rules, and if they don't win, it costs them nothing.
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
Most of their shareholders support GWB
Like Al Gore? Brin and Page own special preferred stock that effectively means they still retain control of the company. They (as well as Google employees, many of whom live in liberal California) vote (and donate) overwhelmingly democratic.Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
They have the money to be the loss leader.
They can go in and undercut everyone to bring some sanity to the cellphone market.
Paying to text is absurd. Paying to send email is absurd.
They will probably come in with some kind of deal where you pay for voice and everything else is free. Given their infrastructure, they can probably pull that off.
If they go GSM with some advanced, high-speed data underneath. They will win, big time.
Get the google quint-band phone with GSM (700Mhz, 850 MHz, 900Mhz, 1.8Ghz, 1.9Ghz), bluetooth, cameraphone with automatic youtube and picasa updates. Total market ownage.
I consider myself a die hard republican and even I can recognize that we have a bunch of incompetent, self-serving grab asses in office. Given that this is the FCC this money should be put to opening a up public spectrum, researching lost cost internet or even contributing to NPR or PBS (yes... I'm a conservative who loves Nova, Frontline and All Things Considered). Instead it will be used to have a go at random super-bowl boobies and censor TV shows that are on when children should be in bed.
Not that I want an Democratic administration to have the money either.
Hmm... don't Australians have topless beach, beer, grilled shrimp and beer?
There are are more constraints to leasing rooftops than meets the eye. In most residential areas, Joe Blow can't lease his rooftop to a commercial entity without an insane amount of hoopla. Otherwise, all cell phone companies would have 100% coverage everywhere - and it's taken them years just to get to the 90-something percent coverage they have now.
In my neighborhood, the Metricom wireless network of yore (fairly cheap flat-rate 50 - 100k service, ubiquitous in the SF Bay Area in the 90s) was not available in my town, because the NIMBYs wouldn't allow it. Lot's of other towns with the same bad attitude as mine.
"Are you radio transmissions going to give my babies cancer?"
"I dunno - now, how many packs a day do they smoke?"
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Some of his major investors include Buffett who is very opposed to W. As to W's policies helping Brin/Page, that is VERY false. To date, the top 10 wealthiest ppl in America have come out SOLIDLY opposed to W's tax cuts and his ongoing deficits. To that end, Buffett, Gates, etc have been moving their money out of dollars and buying up other currency (mostly euros). Why? Because they believe that W's deficts on top of reagans is destroying our ability operate. I think that they are right.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
From the Summary This portion of the spectrum also happens to be the one with two open access conditions attached to its sale mandating that all devices be allowed to access the band and that all applications can be able to run across the network. This means that it may become the dominate frequency for off the shelf parts, since they know that no provider can actually keep their product off the market. Honestly you combine these rules with a device like the N95 or iPhone, add a little Skype, and what you get is Nerdvana, a network where you only pay for the pipe, but you can flush anything you want down it.
The majority of those towers are owned by the telcos. Normally, the cross license their towers with each other. But they all want this 700 MHz and now Google is saying that they are going to make wireless be CHEAP. Think that they will be in the mood to share? I think not.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I've been thinking about this, and I don't think they need to convince anyone.
I mean, yes, I'd expect them to use the wireless spectrum to give them a "last mile" connection to all that dark fiber they've been buying up. But I think they'll also hook it up to the conventional Internet, and keep it truly network neutral. Once that's in place, AT&T can packet shape youTube all they want; all that will happen is that the best route will be via Google's fiber and AT&T will lose money because they won't be peering so much data.
If Google do this right, AT&T will have to stay network neutral just to stay in the game. It'll be typical Google; altruistic on the surface, with a business strategy behind it. It's going to be interesting to see how this issue develops :)
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
Only speak when it improves the silence.
Google has spent a decade and some on one side of a very big coin. Search, ads, gmail, google maps, google docs, google this, that, everything translates into one simple thing - they have the "Where Joe wants his browser to be" for a VERY big number of Joes worldwide.
Buying up the 700MHz band will make them, in the US, own the "Where Joe is coming from". A mountain of dark fiber they've been purchasing lately will supply the infrastructure to connect side A to side B.
Together, these are worth more than the sum of their parts. Coupled, rather than Google wanting to hookup to tier-1 ISP's, it will be tier-1 ISP's who will be jumping through hoops to get closer to the wirelessgoogle plate.
They seem to be using the momentum of their products to try and catch a rather big chunk of the internet backbone and haul it right up onto their own back (just the bit that involves peoples traffic going to them). Quite admirable in its own right, if they manage to pull it off.
Rather than bean-counting and looking for a direct profit, a move like that would reposition them in an entirely different league of players, give them way more power, regulation leverage and later translate into an insanely bigger profits.
I'm eager to see if they manage to pull this off, if for the sheer ability to outsmart all of the established competition for that power. And frankly, even without them being holier than the bloody pope, I'd much rather have them have it than any other player their size.
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so what woudl happen once every torrent user moves onto their network?
will the "do no evil" moto have to change then?
Obviously wireless spectrum is going to be an end-user product. Allowing a nationwide wireless network similar to what Google paid for in the bay area recently.
.... Good question .... maybe somebody should Google it...
But the dark fibre...
Yes, no doubt, perhaps used to connect wireless broadcasting centers to each other, but also, my speculation is that it's going to be used for television. Google is an advertising company. For the forseeable future, there is no bigger advertising medium than Television. True, the major networks upfronts were lower this year than in the past, but that's only because the rise of original content on cable networks has created more premium content for advertisers to buy into.
Google is going to need massive bandwidth to build a next-gen network for TV advertising. Perhaps even one day using the Overlay technology it's deploying on YouTube. Time shifting is here to stay. Advertising is here to stay. I suspect the latter will adapt to the former, and overlays seem a pretty likely candidate.
Who has the technology, bandwidth, ad sales teams, and capital to make it all work?
Then we would also have to nuke Paris, Britney, etc. etc. Well maybe we could just nuke LA that would cover most of it.
Just set me up a basic sig... 10 PRINT "Gordon Aplin" : GOTO 10