Wireless broadband gets firmer footing

WIRELESS BROADBAND GETS FIRMER FOOTING
[SOURCE: International Herald Tribune, AUTHOR: Victoria Shannon]
When and if Google, Apple, Yahoo and the other anticipated players start bidding in the auction for wireless licenses in the United States in January, the prices they name could be the first measure of the impact of the monthlong global radio-frequency spectrum conference that ended in Geneva on Friday. The companies' willingness to bet large amounts of money on the licenses will demonstrate, in part, their confidence in the global commercial market for services in a particular part of the spectrum, the versatile 700-megahertz band of ultra-high frequencies. Their confidence would almost certainly be shakier - and their bids lower - if that band had not been blessed last week by the 150-plus countries represented at the World Radiocommunication Conference, which meets once every several years to hammer out global rules on how best to manage the fixed public resource of the airwaves. Google has said it may bid for a U.S. wireless license, although applications are not due until Dec. 3.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/18/business/wireless19.php?WT.mc_id=rsstechnology