Google's Wireless Auction Play

GOOGLE'S WIRELESS AUCTION PLAY
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Olga Kharif]
Kharif believes, as others observers do, that Google bid enough in the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction to trigger requirements that the winner build an open wireless network allowing all sorts of new devices and software to run over it. But these same observers think that either Verizon or AT&T ended up bidding higher than Google to win the coveted spectrum. In losing, Google apparently will achieve its primary goal -- revving up competition in the wireless market, without spending a dime. But don't cry for AT&T, Argentina, the auction winner will have secured another big chunk of an especially scarce resource while impeding the expansion ambitions of smaller rivals such as Alltel. MetroPCS, and Leap. And despite the record auction proceeds, a quirk in the auction rules may hand AT&T and Verizon a huge bargain on the "C" block licenses, which carry the open-access requirements Google had championed.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080213_895399.htm