For those of you interested in the future of Life Without Wires™ you may or may not be aware that a large portion of the old analog TV radio spectrum will soon be auctioned off by the government. The current chairperson of the FCC, Kevin Martin, has been widely quoted as saying that the aim of the FCC is to utilize the 700 MHz spectrum for a combination of public safety and open access to new and innovative broadband services. Google, for their part, has said they will bid $4.6B for some portion of this old 700 MHz spectrum (formerly part of the UHF TV band) if the FCC clarifies and broadens its definition of “open” to include open platforms, open services and open to third parties.

I don’t follow the politics of Verizon and AT&T versus team Google, which would offer a true insight into who may win or lose or otherwise benefit from this auction. But what is clear to me, is that this new spectrum has the potential to improve access to the internet and future internet services using the attractive properties of 700 MHz radio waves. The approaches of the two camps are very different. Current wireless carriers want to buy the spectrum, and then build out services; such as new cellular and WiMax-like services. They will call this an “open system” because anybody willing to purchase their services plan(s) is “open” to do so. Probably not exactly what most technology people equate with open systems. Google on the other hand wants the 700 MHz spectrum to be more like a nationwide “free” WiFi-like or WiMax-like platform. Google would benefit from this because so much of commerce-on-the-net touches their company.

So, why the clamor over 700 Mhz? It is all about radio physics and the ramifications they have on cost and user experience. At 700 MHz, an operator can cover at least 4X more area for the same transmit power as a 1900 MHz cell phone tower. Also very importantly, 700 MHz travels well over all types of terrain, and penetrates walls and buildings well. That is what made it a good choice for TV signals in the first place. So, the hub-bub over 700 MHz is driven by the fact that more bandwidth can be delivered for less money, and can cover longer distances with better service levels and better battery life than current higher frequency cellular services. In a large industry where operating margins are tight, 700 MHz is indeed a disruptive technology.

The horror story scenario for AT&T and Verizon as they contemplate 700 MHz and Google’s bidding is pretty interesting. Given Google’s advertising business, if you speculate a bit, Google could potentially afford to subsidize a very large portion of an entire nationwide network of high feature, internet capable, mobile phones that would probably be a step beyond the iPhone of today. Think of it like a melding of Vonage and Google using an iPhone. Google would be able to raise additional revenue from the additional online advertisements they would sell from mobile “click throughs”. I don’t have the carrier background to do the math, but it doesn’t seem outrageous to me that it is very possible that Google could charge users a flat $20 a month, all-you-can eat cellular and wireless internet service plan, offer a spectacular high featured phone – including of course Wireless USB, and transform an entire industry. 700 MHz could in fact be the Tipping Point for an entire new era in cellular and internet connectivity.

It should be a wild auction to watch. If Google buys a chunk of nationwide spectrum, it has the promise of some very exciting innovations. If the traditional carriers win out, expect more of the same – just different.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 9:48 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.