Google Mobile Causing an Industry War?
Google’s mobile initiative, which happily confirmed this year’s rumors and officially announced itself as an open platform, is apparently starting to see the big ripple effect of its actual existence. With 34 companies lined up to take advantage of the mobile platform, the ones on the outside aren’t too happy. That would be wireless providers like Verizon and Nokia.
But considering the necessity of Google and its partners to access the Internet via their mobile devices, the question of the UHF broadcast spectrum auction has come into play. We know Google wants it, along with everybody else. And with Google’s proposed participation in the auction, it requested that the winner be required to open its airwaves to any device, application, and ISP, as well as selling access wholesale to resellers.
You may recall that Verizon wasn’t too happy with this demand by Google, and lobbied against it. The FCC didn’t listen to either company and got rid of the wholesale reselling requirement all together. Where does that leave Google? Not entirely out in the cold, and not unable to possibly still win the auction.
Google’s still the new guy on the block when it comes to a mobile OS, and it’s clearly hoping to make a grand entrance by introducing something new, for both the mobile industry in its entirety, and the market’s consumers. Google may need to win that chunk of the UHF broadcast spectrum more than any other party, and it’s willing to spend billions of dollars to get it.
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