Google Phone

Vincent attended the AT&T Media lunch where Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T discussed the company’s plans to collaborate with Google in producing handsets running the open-source Android OS. In discussing upcoming handsets, de la Vega revealed that, following demonstrations of Android prototypes and discussion with the Google team behind the platform, he was convinced to one day include cellphones based on it in AT&T’s range.

“What I’m saying is I like it a lot more than before … We’re now looking to see when it’s ready to be developed. Now I’m in the camp where I’m positive that it’s something I’d want in our portfolio” Ralph de la Vega today, president and CEO, AT&T

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The FCC has confirmed the winning bidders [pdf link] in their recently closed 700MHz spectrum auction, with Verizon Wireless taking the majority of the coveted Block C while AT&T picked up 227 licences from Block B. The auction, which raised $19.592bn in total, concerns parts of the wireless spectrum that will be freed up once analogue TV is turned off and broadcasters switch to digital, starting in 2009. Verizon spent $4.75bn on Block C and a total of $9.63bn in the auction overall; AT&T is believed to have spent around $6.64bn in all. Google, who were strong proponents for the “open access” provisos the FCC later built into the Block C contract, apparently made a “serious bid” according to the FCC, but in the end won none of the licences.

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In a move almost certain to be a calculated response to Verizon’s sudden bursting open of their CDMA network, AT&T has decided to begin publicising the fact that customers can use any GSM handset they wish with the company’s services, rather than needing to buy a vouchsafed model from AT&T’s range.  That should go some way to excusing the carrier’s absence from Google’s OHA; while Android is not directly supported, handsets built on the platform should have no problems accessing AT&T’s service as long as they adhere to the GSM standard.  It’s rather a case of making existing options better known than introducing new features; AT&T has had such an open-access policy for several years, but preferred to keep it quiet so as to encourage new customers to buy cellphones from them rather than reuse their old model.

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With the deadline for 700MHz auction “intent to bid” applications being close of business yesterday, a tentative shortlist of potential spenders is being drawn up.  According to the FCC’s auction rules companies are under no obligation to disclose their intent publicly (indeed some potential players have cited the Commission’s own confidentiality policy in declining to answer) but that hasn’t stopped analysts from having their say.  Currently, Google, AT&T, Cox Communications and Frontline Wireless are all believed to have submitted applications, the latter confirming with CNET that they were part of a consortium that includes ex-Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale and Kleiner Perkins venture-capitalist John Doerr, while the former did so last week.  Neither AT&T nor Cox would comment.

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AT&T isn’t standing well back from Android because they’re worried Google are after their subscriber revenue, oh no; it’s down to a general confusion over what new functionality the platform brings, what security is in place, and - most ironically - how easy it is to access third-party email providers if GMail is the default. That’s the current line of the carrier’s spokesperson, after being pushed to comment on Android and the OHA when journalists decided “[we're] analysing the situation” wasn’t clear enough.

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The latest concept comes from dial-a-phone and essentially looks like an all white version of the iPhone. I like the appearance of the design, but Google doesn’t seem likely to release a device that’s already been done.

Other than the concept from the blog, the writer had some other interesting things to say, such as the likely US carrier being T-Mobile and them partnering with Orange in foreign markets. Orange might get the foreign market contract, so might several other companies, but to be honest, and selfish, I don’t care who gets the foreign market service contract, I am only worried about me (US).

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If the whole FCC auction malarkey has got you confused, then thankfully more analysts are stepping in to lay out exactly what might be on offer for existing carriers, potential new carriers and customers alike.  And while normally the correct name for a group of analysts is “a gobshite” for once they’re actually helping push through some clarity.  One thing’s for sure, Google’s preliminary toe-dip into cellular waters - and their ostentatious $4.6bn credit card waving - has got plenty of people talking.

So what do we know already?  Well, if you want to get pantomime about it, there are the “good guys” and the “bad guys”; Google, Frontline Wireless and others would like to think they sit firmly in the former camp, while existing carriers such as AT&T and Verizon lament in the latter.  Google would have you believe that a new paradigm of wireless usage is at stake, breaking down so-called “open access” into four interconnected chunks.

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So, the cheapest I know of, for a cell phone company is Net10 who offers cellular service for a mere $.10 per minute. The cheapest cell phone has recently just be awarded to Motorola, lets just say I recently bought a Motorola Cingular (now AT&T) GoPhone for a little less than $20 and it came with $10 worth of free minutes. So, the question is, how much of Google’s phone/services could they afford to offer for free, if advertising is factored in?

So, that phone I bought for $20, yeah, that’s not going to be able to do enough to satiate Google. I think, the Motorola Razr, not the new Razr2, the original, is both well priced, and well featured to do most of what Google wants (as far as we know). It is also probably the cheapest phone, and thus the most likely to be seen for free, we could possibly see repping the Google name, so these rumors of HTC, Samsung, and LG being in on the deal sound great, but I would be willing to wager that if any one of those companies gets the contract you will have to pay for your Google gPhone phone. I am not saying this is a problem, since if I was getting completely or partially free service I would be far more willing to pay for a nice phone with the Google name on it.

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Nothing frustrates me more than comments such as the one below, written by an editor of PCMag.com, where fear of change has seemingly overtaken the desire for fresh thinking:

The company seems least prepared to work in the mobile service space. Verizon, AT&T, and even Google’s new partner, Sprint, are not exactly industry darlings or customer favorites, but they know this business and, even if motivated purely by greed, are bound to build a better network than Google. Perhaps they would use it to enhance the mobile devices we already have. I don’t see Google doing any of that. In fact, Google’s history of throwing out a free, beta product isn’t yielding the same kind of results it did a few years ago, and I’d hesitate to let the company take a similar approach to wireless.

Breaking this down, Ulanoff appears to be saying that Google doesn’t know what they are doing and are unlikely to push forward or create new products and services; in other words, they wouldn’t make the best use of the 700 MHz. Moreover, he would rather see the “beach front” property go to Verizon, AT&T or Sprint simply because they’re stalwarts in the industry and despite the fact that they are “motivated purely by greed” — and yes, by the way, they are “bound” to build a better network than Google. My bullshit meter is flying off the scale; let me try to explain why. First of all, let me say this again, what Google doesn’t know now, they’ll buy out whole companies or recruit the best minds in the business to figure out. And secondly, should the 700 MHz spectrum go to Verizon or AT&T, they’ll squat on it for years to come to protect their existing infrastructure. Finally, unless Ulanoff knows something that we all don’t regarding Google’s “master plan”, or he can predict the future, his overall stance seems pretty sweeping when the little Google has revealed about its intentions is mightily inconclusive.

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What Google wants, Google gets. It’s that simple. Federal regulators pulled the rug out from under Verizon and AT&T by requiring that the winner of the upcoming 700-megahertz auction provide an open source standard that could work with any devices and applications. This came nearly a week after Google said it would bid $4.6 billion on a scheduled airwave auction to dish out former analog UHF TV spectrum to emergency services groups and wireless service providers.

The agency approved rules for an auction of broadcast spectrum that its chairman, Kevin J. Martin, said would promote new consumer services. The rules will let customers use any phone and software they want on networks using about one-third of the spectrum to be auctioned.

To refresh your memory, the key reason why Google is so keen on the newly available spectrum is because it is the last piece of beach front property where the frequencies can travel at a greater distance as well as going through walls.

“The 700 MHz auction may well be the FCC’s most important wireless-related action for many years, because it could lead to the introduction of new facilities-based providers of broadband services, wielding new business models,” Google attorney Richard Whitt wrote in a letter earlier this month to the FCC.

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