Google Phone

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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Could Google be saving their 700MHz money and have Sprint’s WiMAX in their sights instead?  That’s a possibility according to mobile investor Paul Grim, who sees the fledgling next-gen wireless broadband technology as perhaps one of the best options for fast-tracking Android into the mainstream.  The idea of such a partnership isn’t new - we wrote about it back in August - but with the launch of the OHA platform and the nearing 700MHz auction, some commentators are beginning to back away from predictions that Google will flex its credit card and pick up sole ownership of the spectrum, instead suggesting that either a co-buy or MVNO route would be more feasible.

“The only way to shortcut the slow option is to ensure WiMAX becomes viable. Sprint’s only route to glory is a completely open network — through WiMAX … [Google] would be smart to maybe partner on the spectrum auction to freeze out Verizon, invest in a joint venture to run Xohm [the Sprint WiMAX project], or maybe even become an anchor tenant as a mobile virtual network operator [MVNO] on the network” Paul Grim, SunBridge Partners

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Android is the open platform for mobile devices that the OHA are in the works of developing. The Open Handset Alliance or OHA is a group of mobile companies including Google, T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, and Motorola, together they are working to make the mobile handset market more open.

There are several other members of the alliance you might recognize such as LG, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, Sprint, Ebay, Broadcom, Intel, nVidia, SIRF (the GPS chipset guys), Synaptics, and TI, there are several more, those are just the ones that I readily recognized. A large portion of the ones not mentioned are international cellular providers, mobile device GUI makers, and other firms with experience in bringing service, hardware, or software components to the mobile device market.

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Scant seconds after the rumor breaks that Google will be announcing their gPhone OS and application suite within two weeks, comes the suggestion that talks with mobile operators in the US are in far more advanced stages than previously believed.  Key, indeed, is the revelation - as usual, by “people familiar with the matter” - that both Verizon and Sprint are close to formulating a deal with Google for gPhone-powered handsets to utilise their networks.

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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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Sprint recently announced that they will be shipping a version of Nokia’s N800 Internet Tablet that will be able to access their 4^th generation WiMAX network. Hopes are high that Sprint’s new network will be widespread enough for a large number of people to make good use of this new iteration of Nokia’s N800.

It would make a lot of sense for some sort of agreement like this to materialize during the design of the phone, as it would require the special WiMAX chips. If Sprint decides to lease bandwidth on its WiMAX network to other carriers it would also make it a more viable option. In a dream world though, Google would just partner with Sprint on this and start making use of all that “dark fiber” Google was buying up a while back.

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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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There’s no denying that Sprint is one of my favorite carriers and Google is hands-down the best search engine. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when the two companies announced their partnership.

I wasn’t aware that there had been some tensions between Google and AT&T, were you?

Early last year, the chief executive of AT&T, Edward Whitacre, shot off his mouth about how Google was getting a “free ride” on “his” network, and perhaps how a company like that should be nicked for higher fees. Ever since then, Google has been stewing in its own juices over the notion.

Ouch. If I read that correctly, Whitacre seemed to be saying that Google is mooching off of the AT&T network for nothing. It’s obvious that Google already pays millions of dollars for network access just to be on the Internet; I bet right there and then, a light bulb must of gone off in their collective head that they are at the mercy of AT&T. Which might explain Google’s buying spree of unused black fiber around the world.

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