$4,713,823,000! The high bid came this morning and placed on the highly desired C-block of frequencies that is being currently auctioned off by the FCC. Now the big question for me is who made the bid? I’m especially interested in this for one reason:

Google

Why Google? Back in August, 2007 I wrote up an article about the upcoming FCC auction for the frequencies that will become available once all analog television broadcasts cease to exist by February 17, 2009. The following is a summery of the new law:

In the United States all television broadcasts will be exclusively digital as of February 17, 2009, by order of the Federal Communications Commission. This deadline was signed into law in early 2006. Furthermore, as of March 1, 2007, all new television sets that can receive signals over-the-air, including pocket-sized portable televisions, must include digital or HDTV tuners so they can receive digital broadcasts. Currently, most U.S. broadcasters are transmitting their signals in both analog and digital formats; a few are digital-only.

I became fascinated with the early proceedings that went on and about this future event and what it meant for folks like you and me and Google sweetened the pot by offering up a minimum bid of 6.4 billion dollars if the FCC tacked these rules onto the 700mhz spectrum:

Open applications: consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;

Open devices: consumers should be able to utilize their handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;

Open services: third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and

Open networks: third parties (like Internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee’s wireless network

The bottom line of all this as I mentioned in that past article of mine, was that as long as Google put their money where their mouth was it really didn’t matter if Google won the spectrum or not since as long as the minimum bid was met, the partially accepted open access rules would go into affect for the C-block irregardless of who won it. As long as that minimum bid was made, it was a done deal. 

Now it’s 2008 and the auction is in another round of bidding and that minimum bid has been met. But who made it? By auction rules the identity is "kept secret" (yeah right) so I’m having to speculate here.

There haven’t been any additional bids since that minimum breaking bid was placed. Now let’s say it was Google making good their promised bid to ensure that open access was attached to this highly desirable piece of future wireless real estate. Now what if they win it?

Google may have a lot riding on this as far as future mobile software is concerned and slap "open access" onto the new spectrum simply means better things to come for all mobile device users. But is it necessarily the best thing for Google to win the portion of the spectrum or for another bidder to take home the wireless bacon and let Google make their software available for all types of mobile devices instead? Unless Google plans to become a wireless provider themselves (free nationwide wireless access for everyone?) or likes the idea of becoming a "spectrum broker" it may actually be better if another provider won it instead. But then again this is still speculation on my part since we don’t actually know who made the bid in the first place.

My bets are with Google (see link by "yeah right").