Google may bid in spectrum auction
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Web search leader Google Inc. said on  Friday that it would participate in an upcoming wireless  spectrum auction if the U.S. Federal Communications Commission  added a key condition.
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I've submitted my bid to buy shares of Google Inc. in the computer search company's giant auction-style initial public offering. That could turn out to be the good news or the bad news.
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Blog: Government officials are writing rules to determine how to use extremely valuable wireless spectrum that will be auctioned in September to the highest bidder.
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(InfoWorld) - Apple is debating whether to participate in the Federal Communications Commission's Jan. 16 wireless spectrum auction, BusinessWeek reported Monday, but analysts who follow Apple said the company would be crazy to build a nationwide wireless network. "That's way out in left field," said Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray & Co. "They're spending their money on other things like the price cut on the iPhone." Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, came to the same conclusion but wouldn't dismiss the report outright. "I wouldn't be surprised if Apple didn't do some head-scratching [on this idea]," Gottheil said, "but I don't see them taking their eye off the ball." Apple would face tremendous risk, something it doesn't need. "And it is a company that can only focus on one thing at a time." Apple would have to come up with some serious cash to enter the FCC auction, which will sell rights to the 700MHz band that TV broadcasters are handing back to the government when they go all-digital in 2009. The BusinessWeek story, however, noted that Apple has nearly $14 billion in cash reserves, more than enough to make the minimum bid of $4.6 billion. The story, which was posted on the magazine's Web site Monday, cited two unnamed sources who claimed that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has studied the implications of joining the auction but is leaning against the idea. Apple's iPhone, of course, is the genesis of any speculation that Apple might compete with other technology companies, most notably Google, in assembling a wireless network. One former Apple executive even told BusinessWeek that it would make sense for the company to give away access. "With the kind of cash position they have and the kind of push they just made into the handset space, it makes a lot of sense for them," the anonymous source said. No way, said Munster. "Not only is that not where they know what they're doing, but that's also not where they want to go. It's pretty clear that Apple wants to be a device and a software company, not a network operator." Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner, said somewhat the same thing, albeit with a caveat. "This would be very far afield for Apple, so I think the odds are very low that Apple would pursue this unless it is in conjunction with a partner," he said. Exactly, chimed in Gottheil. "Apple is unlikely to place a bid itself, but it would very much like someone to build a network they would like, one with a low barrier to entry like low-hourly-fee basic voice and Web access with fees for higher value services," he said. Apple might consider a joint venture of some sort, allowed Gottheil, who tagged Cisco and Google as possible candidates. "Apple has a long-standing relationship with Google, of course," said Gottheil. Three of the seven current Apple board members have ties to Google, including Eric Schmidt, the search company's CEO, and former Vice President Al Gore, who serves as a senior advisor to Google. "[But] they don't want to turn into a utility company. They don't want to risk their culture and too much of their reserves," Gottheil said. "On the other hand, they don't like the existing providers." Apple's -- and Jobs' -- antipathy to wireless carriers, even to AT&T, Apple's exclusive partner in the U.S. for the iPhone, has been the subject of blog postings and pundit musing since the smart phone's debut in June. Last week, for example, when Jobs announced the iPhone's $200 price cut, he made no mention of AT&T, nor did he mention T-Mobile, the wireless carrier that provides the hotspots for Starbucks, Apple's new iTunes partner. "Apple should become more net-centric, but they don't have to own the network to provide cloud-based services," Gottheil said.
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Google is one of several nontraditional communications companies planning to bid on 700MHz wireless spectrum. But at this point it's really anyone's game.
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Google Inc. wants to conclude its share auction Tuesday, setting the stage for its stock to go public Wednesday, according to a statement on its IPO (initial public offering) Web site.
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Google says it will compete in an upcoming wireless spectrum auction, if the government agrees to certain rules.
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A nationwide block of&#160;spectrum in the 700MHz band being auctioned&#160;by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission received a high bid exceeding the &quot;reserve,&quot; or minimum, price of $4.6 billion on Thursday morning.A block of eight licenses covering the 22MHz C block of spectrum being sold by the FCC received a high bid of $4.7 billion in the 17th round of the 700MHz auctions, completed early Thursday. The C block is the portion of the 700MHz band on which the FCC will require open-access rules, meaning the winning bidder must allow outside devices such as mobile handsets from other carriers and must allow users to run outside applications on the network.Some critics have complained that the&#160;open-access rules&#160;would suppress bidding on the C block, but&#160;Google has pledged to bid&#160;at least $4.6 billion on the C block. Bidding is anonymous during the 700MHz auctions, so it&#39;s impossible to tell which company has the high bid.Through the 17th bidding round, high bids on the entire 62MHz of spectrum being auctioned totalled nearly $12.8 billion. The FCC and U.S. Congress had budgeted the auctions to raise at least $10 billion, but many observers had expected the auctions would raise much more than that.One block of spectrum unlikely to reach the FCC&#39;s reserve price is the D block, a 10MHz band of spectrum that would be paired with another 10MHz assigned to public safety agencies. The FCC required that the winning bidder build a nationwide voice and data network to be shared between commercial users and public safety agencies such as police and fire departments.After 17 auction rounds, the high bid for the D block stood at $472 million, far short of the $1.33 billion reserve price set by the FCC. That bid happened in the auction&#39;s first round on Jan. 24, and there&#39;s been no higher bids since then. If the reserve price is not met, the FCC would have to re-auction the D block.Many members of the U.S. Congress pushed for a public safety network, after emergency responders couldn&#39;t communicate with each other during the 9/11 terrorists attacks and more recent disasters. Police and fire departments in neighboring cities often use different devices on different blocks of spectrum.Critics have pointed to an FCC rule for the D block saying the winning bidder would have to give up millions of dollars in a deposit if it couldn&#39;t come to an agreement on network design with the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), which controls the public safety spectrum. Scott Cleland, founder of telecom analyst firm The Precursor Group, called that provision &quot;onerous.&quot;&quot;That is not a negotiation,&quot; said Cleland, speaking at a 700MHz forum Wednesday. &quot;Auctions are free markets, and people don&#39;t have to show up.&quot;The FCC may have to re-auction the spectrum without the reserve price and perhaps without public safety obligations, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Spectrum Policy Program at think tank the New America Foundation. The PSST could use its block of spectrum to negotiate service with the auction winner if no build-out rules are in place, he said.A PSST spokesman wasn&#39;t immediately available for comment on the bidding.
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The upcoming 700MHz spectrum auctions by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)&#160;have drawn bid applications from giant companies including Google and AT&amp;T. But a number of small companies and individuals have submitted bid applications as well.
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Google Inc. is one of 266 potential bidders in a highly anticipated airwaves auction scheduled to begin in January.
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AT&T Inc  said on Friday it  plans to participate in an upcoming government auction of  airwaves in the 700-Megahertz spectrum band, but it is still  deciding whether to bid for a portion of the spectrum reserved  for open access.
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Yesterday I heard rumors that there might not be enough bids to fully subscribe the Google auction at $108. For Google and the market&#39;s sake, I hope that&#39;s not true. I would like to see an auction market develop for IPOs.
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Here's how the FCC's auction of large chunks of wireless spectrum could change the nature of mobility.
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Verizon Wireless' request that a court review the FCC's decision requiring open access to spectrum it is about to auction has met strong resistance from Google and a host of other groups.
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Communications regulators have  cleared Google Inc  to bid in an upcoming auction of  coveted wireless airwaves, according to auction documents  released by the Federal Communications Commission on Monday.
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Within weeks, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is expected to set conditions for the auction of the most valuable wireless spectrum still available in the United States.
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Google Inc. is opening the auction for its much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO) on Friday, with plans to announce the pricing of its stock next week.