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| Thursday, 26 July 2007 | |
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Some are born to Google, some achieve Googleness and some have Googleness thrust upon them. Harold and Maude go wireless…
Google is looking to find a beachhead for dominance of the wireless world with an expression of interest in the forthcoming sell-off of US 700MHz spectrum. Its platform for this bid is laden with the quasi-socialist language of Google, which curiously tends to echo the Kim Jong-Il lifestyles of its founders. Google founders Harold and Maude are rushing in where other angels fear to tread. “In the US, wireless spectrum for mobile phones and data is controlled by a small group of companies, leaving consumers with very few service providers from which to choose. With that in mind, last week, as the federal government prepares for what is arguably its most significant auction of wireless spectrum in history, we urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt rules to make sure that regardless of who wins the spectrum at auction, consumers' interests are the top priority.” Wireless spectrum is indeed “controlled by a small group of companies”. In contrast, search engineering is wildly competitive. Not that the twosome acknowledge this in their latest statements. Their formal statement suggests the type of ‘spin doctoring’ that only a man with a rectal thermometer can perform. Here are the bits we’ll quote in the interests of industrial gaiety: “In a filing with the FCC on July 9, Google urged the Commission [the FCC] to adopt rules for the auction that ensure that, regardless of who wins the spectrum at auction, consumers' interests are served. Specifically, Google encouraged the FCC to require the adoption of four types of "open" platforms as part of the license conditions: • open applications: consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire; • pen devices: consumers should be able to utilize a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer; • open services: third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably non-discriminatory commercial terms; and • open networks: third parties (like internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700MHz licensee's wireless network. “Today, as a sign of Google’s commitment to promoting greater innovation and choices for consumers, CEO Eric Schmidt sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, stating that should the FCC adopt all four license conditions requested above, Google intends to commit a minimum of $4.6bn to bidding in the upcoming 700MHz auction.” The wobbly position for Google is that its doughty search engine hardly gives it a guaranteed breakthrough or an all-conquering brand in the wireless world. World domination as seen by Brin and Page may be harder to achieve than they are told by the female flight attendants in their personalised 747s. Google can spend up to US$5bn in what passes for an online equivalent of Roosevelt-era socialist funding of, and access to, infrastructure in the USA. So, souls sold? So sorry. Jim Chalmers |
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