DISQUS

VentureBeat: Did Google trick Verizon into spending billions for an open spectrum auction win?

  • Marc Fawzi · 1 year ago
    I love it! I love it! I love it!
  • Marc Fawzi · 1 year ago
    I'd like to append to the above that Qualcomm, a provider of CDMA technology to Verizon, is a member of the Google sponsored Open Handset Alliance.

    Android OS will work on CDMA phones.

    Verizon just couldn't make itself join OHA during this awkward stage in the evolution of their argument. They had their technology provider join it for now.
  • MG Siegler · 1 year ago
    @Marc - Thanks for the info. I recall Verizon in that awkward stage of not committing to the OHA but saying they probably would join eventually.
  • Dean Siegler · 1 year ago
    Verizon was hardly tricked.

    They and AT&T were the two main competitors for blocks of the new frequencies that were superior to what they currently have, and would cover the entire US. Aside from their own needs (for next generation phones), they also had to bid to keep out competitors (Google or no Google).

    This was a once-in-a-lifetime auction for a monopoly on a band of frequencies over a large number areas (and in the case of Verizon's winning bid, over one large contiguous area. A license that in itself is valuable, but also allows the owner to harvest it for their own cash.
  • MG Siegler · 1 year ago
    @dean - yes, the key word in the sentence being 'open'. Verizon clearly wanted the spectrum, I don't know who wouldn't, but they (at least initially) did not want to have to commit to opening it.

    More details will come in the following days, but it would appear that it was Google who may have placed the minimum bid to ensure the spectrum would be open.
  • Paulo · 1 year ago
    A great observation, but not an original one.

    For all the Valley types who were rooting for Google, the Teflon Kid, we'll leave you to ponder the words of Verbal Kint: "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

    Chris Williams in The Register - Thursday 25th October 2007

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/25/microso...
  • Larry · 1 year ago
    I must say I like that everything is open and the picture from Doob31 at the top is excellent
  • edhardy622 · 2 months ago
    My girlfriend bought me a pair of Chestnut color UGG boots short for Christmas.
    http://www.uggboots365.co.uk