COMMUNICATIONS - Google's long shot in wireless - The company offers to bid for airwaves, and that could lead to open access and lower broadband prices.
WASHINGTON — If Google Inc. has its way, your cellphone will work on any wireless network and companies will sell high-speed Internet access for cut-rate prices.
Google thinks that would be a wonderful world -- for consumers as well as its own bottom line -- and it's proposing to pony up $4.6 billion in a long-shot bid to create it.
The king of Web search Friday offered to dig into its mountain of cash to transform a chunk of prime public airwaves into a high-speed data freeway. If successful, it could drive down the price of Internet access by creating more competitors to phone and cable companies.
Google promised to bid in an upcoming federal auction of spectrum that is ideal for fast wireless Internet service -- but only if regulators agree to the company's proposals to require open access to those airwaves. That means any device, service, software application or network could operate on it without restrictions.
"That would be revolutionary," said Bob Williams, director of Consumers Union's HearUsNow.org, a website that promotes telecommunications competition.
"If you want high-speed Internet service, you basically have a choice of two, and in a lot of places you don't have any choice
Google told the Federal Communications Commission that it would put up the minimum bid of $4.6 billion. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company wanted to prove its seriousness and counter big wireless companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., which say the conditions would make the spectrum virtually worthless.
The offer is unlikely to sway the FCC. The agency believes that the airwaves being given up by TV broadcasters in 2009 as they switch to digital signals could fetch much more for federal coffers.
But Google is showing its intention to influence one of the biggest spectrum auctions in the nation's history.
Google's offer comes at a time when investors are raising questions about how much money the company is spending to put its ambitious plans in place.
Its stock fell more than 5% to $520.12 Friday after big investments on hires and other expansion costs caused its second-quarter earnings to miss Wall Street's expectations.
Despite its promise to bid, Google may not want to license the airwaves itself. But it does want to force them open to increase competition with cable and phone companies -- and make it cheaper for people to get on the Web and use Google's growing array of services.
