Google and UK Wireless Auction
Sep 21, 2007
As the Federal Communications Commission prepares for the January auction of the 700 MHz spectrum here in the U.S., regulators in the United Kingdom have made a surprising announcement that could open the door for Google and others to bid on radio spectrum in the UK.
UK telecom regulator Ofcom said yesterday that it plans to "liberalise" the wireless spectrum currently used for 2G networks operated by mobile phone operators Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile and Orange. The move paves the way for companies to offer 3G high-speed wireless broadband over the spectrum, which now only supports voice calls, texting and low-speed Internet services.
Ofcom is proposing to take back part of the spectrum currently used by Vodafone and O2, which is well-suited for long-range wireless broadband, and to auction it off to other companies as early as 2009 (neither Vodafone nor O2, which won the deal to start selling Apple's iPhone on November 9th, would be allowed to bid). Ofcom anticipates that such an auction would bring in about $12.2 billion.
According to The Guardian, the news signals an opportunity for Google because "acquiring a slice of the airwaves in Britain would allow the Californian search engine to launch its own fully fledged mobile phone service or push for the sort of open standards-based wireless broadband network it is proposing in the US." You can read more from The Guardian here.
Tags:
