FCC Closes Spectrum Auction
March 19th, 2008 | by Brad King |I’ve been covering the FCC Wireless Spectrum Auction on-and-off for the ECT News Network. Today, the auction closed, with four of the five main Blocks official sold. The fifth — for public safety and private partnerships — didn’t make the cut.
The $19 billion auction, though, is most significant because of Block C, which requires that the owner run an open, national mobile network that will allow any handheld device to operate on that network. In other words, your hardware isn’t tied to a specific mobile carrier.
And as FCC chairman Kevin Martin said, you’ll be able to download any software and application to your phone.
The ten-year, renewable license was pushed by Google — although the FCC hasn’t announced which company secured the rights. There is some speculation that Google, which is reading its Android mobile phone operating system, may have simply pushed for the open network before backing off the purchase so the company can get into the mobile business without the costs associated with building the infrastructure.
