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April 04, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Why Google wanted to lose wireless spectrum auction
The U.S. FCC's auction of wireless spectrum was not without its share of controversy.
Leading up to and throughout the process Google's bid garnered the most attention. What would the search-engine-turned-online-advertising-giant want with a wireless band, anyway?
A story by New York Times reporter Miguel Helft contends that, in actuality, Google did not want to own any of the nation's airwaves.
"Google's main goal was not to win, but to make sure the reserve price was met so that the openness conditions would become effective, ensuring that its search, e-mail, maps and other services would be easily available on phones operating on those frequencies. And while the company had willingly taken the risk that it could end up winning, it was not without trepidation," Helft reports in An auction that Google was content to lose.
A bold move, indeed.
Even now that it's been officially closed and Verizon was the winner of a large chunk of 700MHz spectrum, controversy surrounds the unsold block intended for public safety use. Specifically, the company advising a public safety group on the matter is accused of setting bidding requirements that may have caused at least one potential bidder to drop out of the auction.
But not Google.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 4, 2008 08:32 AM
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