Forget Google Phone? Google eyes wireless spectrum

The FCC plans to auction off a swath of 700MHz spectrum that is currently dedicated to over the air, analog, television signals. Presumably the bands, whose signals can carry abou double the range of those from higher-frequencies, can be used to offer consumer wireless broadband access in competition with cable and DSL. The auction is expected to rake in $10B or more.

According to USA Today, Richard Whitt, Washington, D.C. telecom and media counsel for Google, allows that Google may participate in the auction. Chilling to me was Google's request to the FCC to allow winners of the auction to create an auction system allowing third-parties to bid for use of the spectrum.

I observe that Google serves about 50% of Internet searches, down from perhaps 75% when free market forces prevailed and Yahoo! stopped purchasing Google's search ranking results. If Google owned this new frontier of spectrum outright and set the terms for third-party use, what free market forces could intervene?

Q. Cable, DSL, or holding out for 700MHz?

Broadband PCS Spectrum Auction Closes; Winning Bidders Announced for Auction No. 58

FCC Auction 58 has ended, and companies have bid generously (greedily?) for the rights to bring Broadband PCS content to a handset near you. (Refer to Attachment A for the winners.) Over $2B was bid, spreading 217 licenses over 24 bidders, among 35 participants.

It is hard to wrap my mind around these sums, which don't include the cost of infrastructure to actually use the bandwidth. As with any fixed resource with high demand, the clash of Keynesian economics and Auction Theory combined to provide large windfalls of cash to the FCC.

Q. Who can trace the legal ownership of wireless spectrum in the U.S. to the FCC?