Google to buy 700MHz spectrum

JaJae · 11-17-2007, 01:01 PM

The 700MHz band is currently being used for broadcast television. It is going to be freed in 2009. The US is taking bids on this frequency range. Google wants it and has the capital to afford it. It looks as if they will take it unchallenged.

Google is willing to put a minimum of $4.6 billion down to get the frequency ranges 698MHz - 806MHz. As of now nobody has come forward to bid against Google.

The FCC is putting new terms on the frequency band which would force Google to give people the freedom to choose what applications and networks they use with the phones they bought, and giving service providers the freedom to connect with those networks and buy wholesale minutes from network owners on reasonable terms.

Google currently has $13.1 billion in cash on hand to purchase this spectrum and get a network operating.

Ardentfrost · 11-17-2007, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by JaJae

The FCC is putting new terms on the frequency band which would force Google to give people the freedom to choose what applications and networks they use with the phones they bought, and giving service providers the freedom to connect with those networks and buy wholesale minutes from network owners on reasonable terms.

Google is the one that lobbied them to put in these restrictions on the spectrum. I thought I posted about this a while back. The large carriers said that if the FCC put in those restrictions that they wouldn't want that spectrum and it wouldn't sell well, and THAT was when Google said it was willing to front $4.6 billion for the spectrum, pretty much saying that it would, in fact, sell well.

Them finally preparing to put up the money is the fulfillment of that promise, and it just gets them closer to their goals announced with their release of Andriod 2 weeks ago.

AVengeance · 11-20-2007, 01:43 PM

I wondered why the broadcasters were being pushed out of that spectrum. Now it's all making sense. At least it'll be easy to hack.

Ardentfrost · 11-20-2007, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by AVengeance

I wondered why the broadcasters were being pushed out of that spectrum. Now it's all making sense. At least it'll be easy to hack.

What'll be easy to hack? The mobile spectrum?

Or do you mean if they start using it to provide wireless internet to people... because if you think there are no ways to lock you out of a wireless network, I lol at you. The most you could do (at least with what my team does at my job) is snoop someone else's connection and get their passwords, but them not being able to access the internet while you're snooping them might give them pause. And if you did get their passwords and try to use their login to gain access to the internet, ipsecguard can be used to automagically block you both.

This is also why I suggest to everyone to use Secure Sockets or SSH tunneling when on a wireless network. The ability to sniff packets on wireless is too easy.