If you follow the Internet giant Google even a little bit, you may have heard about how they are gunning for bid on America’s last chunk of broadcast spectrum. If not, then you probably didn’t understand that last sentence. In case you identify with the latter, RobertCringely has written an incredibly thorough column entitled “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the 700-MHz Auction but Were Afraid to Ask.”
Are you a cell phone user? Then this pertains to you as well.
The FCC controls a series of spectrum by which we send and receive phone calls, television signals and other data. So American Idol owes them a lot. But that’s not what is important. The big picture revolves around who is bidding for the open space on the 700-MHz frequency and what they plan on doing with it. This is the same spectrum that analog TV’s use — so by the end of February next year, everyone will need to watch Simon on digital cable.
Huge telecom companies have a big interest in this bidding war. Why? Because this is the last plot of spectrum that is going to be available for mobile communications for the next many years. That’s why the FCC is going to try and throttle $10 billion out of this deal.
But it goes just beyond buying and selling air space. Google wants to get their hands on this remaining frequency because they want to see it open. That scares organizations like AT&T and Verizon. After all, the 700-MHz block could potentially be used to create a much wider, more efficient wireless network to compete with the big dogs. Wouldn’t that be nice: Having a cell phone that actually performs?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Billions of dollars are at stake here, but we won’t know how this pans out for many months to come. If I had to pick a camp, then I’m rooting for Google.
