GOOGLE'S ATTEMPT TO BUY INTO WIRELESS

Google's attempt to buy into wireless via the 700 MHz Spectrum Auction



Google's attempt to buy into wireless via the 700 MHz Spectrum Auction

Why did Google make this move? What do they hope to accomplish?

Google has always tried to lead the search market. To a very large extent, it has succeed in this quest. Wireless internet access has grown in importance as one of the largest merging fields. Desktops and laptops have given way to cell phones as the dominant internet access medium. Google has been trying to lead this market as well. It has designed a whole set of services that aim to take advantage of the mobile communication. These services have exploited the differences between the way internet is accessed on a laptop and a cell phone. The prospect of entering into the wireless market offers Google many potential growth and development practices as well as competencies. Google aims to provide charges free of monthly charges. One particular goal that may have been in mind with this decision is the growth of Google's vast wireless software portfolio that includes Gmail, Maps, Docs, Calendar Sync and various other applications that can be downloaded to many phones. This is in direct defiance of the current models that charge a flat monthly fee. Google wished to bring its advertising model to the mobile world. The strategy is to capture the market a d push its advertising solutions to the mobile consumers (Rappaport, 2007).

How does Google's support for Open Access fit into Google's plans?

Google supporting Open Access truly makes this a collaborative decision. Many people are rooting for Google to bid on the 700MHz spectrum for reasons that it will allow for competitive pricing of many cellular Internet features. With the requirement to allow any device or application to operate on the spectrum, however, Google could get into the mobile market without having to build and operate a network. If Google is successful, however, broadcast companies will have much more flexibility in creating business models that use spectrum that used to belong to them in the first place. The irony of this is stunning. Open access provides the following flexibility:

Open applications. Any sort of software applications and content should be download by users and make use of services without limitations.

Open devices. Any kind of handheld communications device should be accessed by users.

It looks like Google wants to get into wireless, yet wireless is not one of Google's core competencies. What should Google do about this?

Currently, wireless communication systems suffer from scarcity in spectrum resource and inefficiency in spectrum usage. That is why Google attempt to buy into wireless via the 700 MHz Spectrum Auction. Market-driven 700 MHz spectrum auction has been recognized as an effective way to achieve dynamic spectrum access. In spectrum auction, the essential spectrum owners (POs) act as auctioneers who are willing to sell idle spectrum bands for additional revenue, and the secondary users (SUs) act as bidders who are willing to buy spectrum bands ...