Lawmakers completely uninformed about recent FCC
auction
So this auction was/is a huge deal in my industry. We all knew what was going to happen. Google was going to ensure the threshold to trigger the "openness" rules was met and then hope some other company would be dumb enough to bid higher. Of course Verizon stumbled in and obliged letting Google off the hook.
Google did "game" the auction. But it wasn't some secret. They were very clear and very public about what they were doing. They're developing an alternative eco-system for mobile devices. One without wireless carriers. It's a huge win for Google and for the American public. Five years from now the thought of signing a 2 year contract with your new phone will be laughable. Maybe 3 years from now. Verizon and AT&T will be lucky to survive. They will certainly be crippled. Google caused Verizon to cough up over $4 billion and got the open access rules they need to get Android off the ground.
Anyone involved in the wireless industry knew about this. It's been talk of the industry for close to a year, maybe longer. Yet somehow it's a shock to a group of law makers. I see one possibility only; large lobbyist donations by folks like AT&T and Verizon to this group of suddenly outraged. I'd bet folding money we shortly see a push by this group of law makers to rescind the open access rules associated with the C block.
While it looks like the FCC understood what was going on clearly Congress did not/does not. And now that the old guard of the wireless world lost a key battle they're going to try to undo their loss retro-actively by buying a group of congressmen. Let's hope they don't succeed.
So this auction was/is a huge deal in my industry. We all knew what was going to happen. Google was going to ensure the threshold to trigger the "openness" rules was met and then hope some other company would be dumb enough to bid higher. Of course Verizon stumbled in and obliged letting Google off the hook.
Google did "game" the auction. But it wasn't some secret. They were very clear and very public about what they were doing. They're developing an alternative eco-system for mobile devices. One without wireless carriers. It's a huge win for Google and for the American public. Five years from now the thought of signing a 2 year contract with your new phone will be laughable. Maybe 3 years from now. Verizon and AT&T will be lucky to survive. They will certainly be crippled. Google caused Verizon to cough up over $4 billion and got the open access rules they need to get Android off the ground.
Anyone involved in the wireless industry knew about this. It's been talk of the industry for close to a year, maybe longer. Yet somehow it's a shock to a group of law makers. I see one possibility only; large lobbyist donations by folks like AT&T and Verizon to this group of suddenly outraged. I'd bet folding money we shortly see a push by this group of law makers to rescind the open access rules associated with the C block.
While it looks like the FCC understood what was going on clearly Congress did not/does not. And now that the old guard of the wireless world lost a key battle they're going to try to undo their loss retro-actively by buying a group of congressmen. Let's hope they don't succeed.
