Shining Internet search and Web services star Google had only a cursory interest in winning the federal spectrum auction that concluded last month, and primarily hoped to drive bids high enough to  trigger provisions ensuring more open access to any future service using a key group of the airwaves, Google revealed Thursday. The nation's second largest mobile provider Verizon Communications won the key portion of the airwave spectrum around 700-megahertz previously used for broadcasting analog television signals, with a $4.74 billion bid that topped Google's highest bid of $4.71 billion, a loss Google said Thursday will work to its advantage as it will concentrate on making sure cell phones running its open source Android operating system will work on Verizon's new service, and push the Federal Communications Commission to allow Google to reach consumers nationwide through a mobile service operating on unused "white space" portions of airwaves between television signals to be freed up in late 2009 after broadcasters convert to digital delivery. Google Public Policy Blog Revelations Were Google to have outbid Verizon in the FCC auction for a set of frequencies known as the C block, a move that would have cost it $4.7 billion, the Mountain View, California-based company would have been in unfamiliar territory as a wireless provider, a prospect it feared at times during the two months of secret  bidding encompassing 260 rounds, according to Google legal team members Richard Whitt and Joseph Faber who posted a statement Thursday on the firm's public policy blog. "It was clear, then and now, that Verizon Wireless ultimately was motivated to bid higher (and had far more financial incentive to gain the licenses)," Whitt and Faber wrote in the statement, the first public insight into Google's auction activities, made possible after an FCC anti-collusion gag rule expired Thursday. In November 2007 Google said that it was ready to bid at least $4.6 billion in the FCC auction, a figure representing the auction's reserve price, which it agreed to meet if the FCC implemented four "open access" provisions. Two of the provisions Google pushed for, allowing customers to use any device or software on the new spectrum, were implemented, while two others which dealt with allowing the eventual winner to provide access to rivals on a wholesale basis, were not included. Google Bid To Show Commitment To Open Mobile Access Google was not bound to bid in the auction, as it felt that its pledge to do so was good only if the FCC implemented all four of the provisions it sought, according to the Thursday Google statement. "Even though the FCC ultimately agreed to only two of the conditions, which nullified our original pledge, we still believed it was important to demonstrate through action our commitment to a more open wireless world," Faber and Whitt noted. Some who had hoped the auction, which began on January 24 with 73 bidders, would bring new entries into the U.S. wireless market and possibly bring lower prices to consumers, were likely disappointed with results that saw the top two players, Verizon and  AT&T, adding considerably to their vast networks. AT&T was happy with its success in the FCC auction, the firm's wireless unit president and chief executive Ralph de la Vega said in a Thursday news conference, however he noted that the open access provisions implemented through Google's lobbying efforts served to drive up auction prices. "People put a premium on spectrum that is not encumbered by excessive regulations," de la Vega said. Losing Spectrum Battle To Win Wireless War Google appears to see its loss in the auction battle as a victory in the open mobile access war, as  SearchEngineWorld wrote about when the winning bidders were announced during March. "As you probably know by now, Google didn't pick up any spectrum licenses in the auction," Whitt and Faber wrote in the Thursday Google blog entry. "Nonetheless, partly as a result of our bidding, consumers soon should have new freedom to get the most out of their mobile phones and other wireless devices," Google added. With Verizon's bid high enough to ensure the two provisions will be met, Google can now seek to capitalize on the forthcoming wireless network through selling advertisements and by providing search, maps and other Web services and applications to those Verizon consumers who will be accessing the network. That is one of at least three areas where Google can push forward its mobile agenda, the other two being its Android mobile operating system and its spectrum white-space aspirations. Strong White-Space And Android Ambitions Google's mobile operating system Android aims to allow cell phones to use the numerous online applications the Mountain View, California-based company has developed over the past several years, and has gained considerable industry support since it was launched in November 2007. "We hope to enable an open ecosystem for the mobile world by creating a standard, open mobile software platform," said Google Director of Mobile Platforms Andy Rubin during Android's launch. Thursday Whitt and Faber restated Google's commitment to Android. "Android is already off to a successful start, and we are likely to see handsets later this year based on the Android platform," Whitt and Faber noted. The most ambitious of Google's wireless plans may be its push to use the so-called white-spaces between television signals. "We will continue advocating for the FCC to open up the vacant 'white spaces' in the TV spectrum band for mobile broadband uses," Google said in the public policy blog statement. Google Says It Succeeded In Bidding Up FCC Spectrum Auction Google proposed a plan that would sense when portions of the white-space spectrum need to be used by the government or military, and has supported and expanded a plan proposed in 2007 by Motorola that would  ensure high-speed wireless access will not interfere with television and wireless microphone signals. The white-space spectrum, which is located between channels 2 and 51 on televisions receiving traditional analog broadcast signals, has the potential to carry mobile Internet traffic at significantly higher speeds than existing systems, and with a broader coverage area in the U.S. Should the FCC approve open access to the white-space spectrum, Internet speeds of gigabits-per-second would be possible across the U.S., with signals well-suited to traveling long distances and through buildings and other obstacles. In these post-FCC auction times Google appears intent to continue lobbying for a wireless market as open as that of the physical Internet itself. "As more policymakers and regulators around the world evaluate their own spectrum policies, we'll continue pushing to help make the wireless world look much more like the open platform of the Internet," Google said Thursday. Related Links:
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9:36 pm on April 4, 2008 (utc 0)