[1st-mile-nm] Google Pushes for Rules to Aid Wireless Plans

[Richard Lowenberg]

Numerous articles are appearing daily, as the battle over the FCC's 700
MHz auction, scheduled for next year, heats up.   At stake are rival
approaches and interests, with the incumbents (AT&T, Verizon) wanting to
own and sell their new wireless services, vs Google leading the charge for
new 'open' wireless services.   Lots more to be played out over the coming
months, with lots at stake for end-users, communities, devices and service
providers.   This from today's NY Times.

July 21, 2007

Google Pushes for Rules to Aid Wireless Plans
By MIGUEL HELFT and STEPHEN LABATON

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/technology/21google.html?
ex=1342670400&en=2a8a51ec5cb4daf2&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss>

If Google succeeds with federal regulators, it could change the way
millions of Americans use their cellphones and how they connect to
the Internet on their wireless devices.

In the Internet giant's view of the future, consumers would buy a
wireless phone at a store, but instead of being forced to use a
specific carrier, they would be free to pick any carrier they wanted.
Instead of the wireless carrier choosing what software goes on their
phones, users would be free to put any software they want on it.

Google believes that the cost of voice calls and data connections to
the Internet may be partly subsidized by advertisements brought to
users by Google's powerful online advertising machine.

There might even be a Google phone.

That vision, according to several analysts, is the reason Google said
yesterday that it would bid upward of $4.6 billion for a swath of the
nation's airwaves, which are set to be auctioned by the federal
government next year — as long as certain conditions are met.

But Google's efforts to position itself on the side of the consumer
are also part of a fierce lobbying battle that pits it and other tech
companies against wireless carriers, who oppose conditions that
Google wants to set on the winners of the auction. Verizon Wireless
has called the conditions "corporate welfare for Google."  And AT&T
rejected Google's latest effort, calling it an "all or nothing
ultimatum."  The Federal Communications Commission chairman, Kevin
Martin, has come out squarely against two of Google's four proposed
conditions.

The F.C.C.'s rules governing the auction could shape the landscape
for the next generation of mobile telephones and wireless Internet use.

"When you go to Best Buy to buy a TV, they don't ask whether you have
cable or satellite," said Blair Levin, a former F.C.C. official who
is now an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Company. "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. That doesn't exist
in the wireless world. That's where Google wants to go with this
auction."

Google has already invested millions of dollars in mobile phone
technology, in part, to develop a comprehensive set of software for
mobile devices that goes well beyond the mobile search and map
services it already offers. Rumors about a Google phone that would
provide easy access to the company's mobile services have been
persistent.

The company has been characteristically circumspect about its mobile
plans, and just this week, Eric E. Schmidt, Google's chief executive,
deflected questions from an analyst about plans for a mobile phone.
"We have looked pretty carefully at wireless and are thinking about
what we want to do there," Mr. Schmidt said.

But Mr. Schmidt stressed the importance to Google of a network where
anyone could plug in any device and have access to the full abilities
of the Internet. In such an environment, Mr. Schmidt noted, mobile
phone users would become significant consumers of online advertising,
Google's core business.

Google fears that some of its mobile efforts could be thwarted "or
prove less lucrative", if a handful of cellphone carriers continue to
dominate the wireless Internet world and retain the power to
determine what services and applications run on their networks.
Google's set of proposed rules would have the F.C.C. require that any
devices and any application could be connected to the wireless
network using the auctioned spectrum. Further, they would require
that whoever wins the spectrum make a portion of it available to
resellers on a wholesale basis, which Google and other technology
companies believe is necessary to promote broadband competition.

[snip]